Ad Victoriam Civilian
by TurtleTrot
Summary: After an extremely unfortunate accident, 19 year old Tatum is thrust in to the Brotherhood of Steel's life style. Can she cope with her new life? Or will her stubborn attitude prevent her from ever getting along with the crew of the Prydwen? Rated T for language and violence. -SPOILERS start in Chapter 5!-
1. Chapter 1

Tatum brushed off her dirt stained hands on her dirt stained jeans. It seemed like everything she owned was covered in dirt. She didn't mind though, at least it was dirt she collected from hard work instead of just having to live in the filth. Only two years ago, when she was 17 years old, she had been living alone after raiders killed her father. After his death, 12 year old Tatum had taken up residence in an abandoned gas station. It still had a couple supplies that no one had claimed yet. More importantly, it had a hidden basement under the cash register's counter. She would slid open the counter's door and pull up on the wood that covered the hole to the basement.

Several skeletons were huddled together in the hidden basement. Tatum didn't like to go down there because of them but when trouble came to her gas station, it was the best place to hide. She would gather food and supplies during the day and take refuge in her basement at night. Life was going pretty well for her for five years, until raiders came to ruin her life again. Tatum had hoped they would stay for a day or two, like all the others, and then move on. However it didn't seem like they were going to be leaving anytime soon.

She had stored enough food and supplies to last two weeks, if she used them sparingly. After 15 days, the raiders were still there. On the 16th night, Tatum made her move. She waited until it was quiet and then crept out of her hole and snuck past several unconscious raiders, too stoned to notice her. Once she was far enough away she ran at full speed and prayed that none of the Raiders would find her.

Tatum had run the entire night, stopping only once to catch her breath. By morning she was exhausted. She found the nearest abandoned building and fell asleep under the bed. For several months she wandered the ruined city and hid from every sound. Until one day two ghouls found her sleeping under a bridge. They took Tatum in and treated her as family for the next two years.

"Tate?" Rachelle patted the 19 year old girl on the shoulder. "Daydreaming again?" The old ghoul chuckled at Tatum's surprised face.

"Sorry." She smiled at Rachelle and stood, brushing her knees off. "Were you saying something?"

"Pa needs you to change that light bulb in the kitchen." Rachelle gestured to the house. "I'll take over here." She knelt down and pulled at the weeds surrounding the carrots they had planted. Tatum made her way towards Derrell who was erecting a ladder inside the house. Rachelle was terrified of heights and Derrell was so old that he didn't trust himself on ladders, which left Tatum.

Rachelle and Derrell were father and daughter, both prewar ghouls. Derrell was in his 60's when the bombs fell and Rachelle was in her early 40's. Tatum had learned that Rachelle had a family of her own, two sons and a loving husband. However, none of them survived when the bombs dropped. Rachelle was like a mother to Tatum, loving and when necessary, disciplinary.

"You're dirtier than a mole rat, child." Derrell teased as he plucked the handkerchief from his pocket and wiped at Tatum's face, she swatted his hand away with a giggle. He had a southern drawl, and always wore cowboy boots and a wide brimmed hat. Rachelle was the opposite. She always wore a nice flowy summer dress, the kind the housewives wore before the bombs. She also had a dark brown wig that almost never came off.

Tatum climbed up the ladder and unscrewed the broken bulb and replaced it with the new one. Derrell held the ladder for her until she was finished and safely back on the ground. He clicked on the switch and the room lit up.

"Atta girl." He praised and Tatum beamed. A deep, loud hum echoed through the house. "What in tarnation?" Derrell spun around and looked out the window. "The generator?" He questioned as the two of them joined Rachelle outside.

"Look!" Tatum pointed to the sky where a large flying blimp floated overhead. Several smaller flying ships were released from the larger one and flew around it. Her eyes were glued to the massive flying machine, she had never seen anything like it. Rachelle and Derrell shared a concerned look.

"People of the Commonwealth!" A voice rang out across the land. "Do not interfere, our intentions are peaceful. We are the Brotherhood of Steel."

"What are they doing here?" Derrell barely hid the contempt in his voice. "Seems like everywhere we go those yahoos are always a step behind."

"Who are they?" Tatum turned to look at the old ghoul.

"The Brotherhood of Steel are nothing but racist hypocrites. They kill anything and everything that isn't human." Rachelle explained.

"Or human _enough._ " Derrell added bitterly.

"They hoard technology, claiming that no one else can have any because they'll ruin the world with it. But I don't trust them with it either." Rachelle clapped the dirt from her hands and shook her head disapprovingly. "I'm going to start dinner." Tatum looked up into the sky and watched as the ships flew into the distance, getting smaller and smaller.

* * *

Two weeks had gone by since the Brotherhood of Steel had come to the Commonwealth and life had gone on as normal. Tatum tended the garden while Derrell repaired what he could inside the house. Rachelle offered assistance wherever she was needed. Every once and a while one of the smaller flying ships, that Derrell called "vertibirds", would fly overhead. Tatum stopped every time one of them did and watched. There was always a pilot, and several people in large metal suits and other strange outfits, in the back. There was also a large gun attached to the side.

Tatum thought they were interesting but from the stories her ghoul family told, they sounded awful. _Maybe I'll meet them one day._ She thought hopefully, but would never utter the words out loud. So far it seemed like they only killed super mutants and raiders. That didn't seem like a bad thing to her, but Rachelle and Derrell still seemed wary.

"Tate, your head is in the clouds again." Rachelle poked her in the ribs and she squealed. "I swear, you lose your head more often than you find it."

"I can't help it." Tatum scooped a spoonful of InstaMash in to her mouth. "The world is such a big place… There's so much to think about."

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Rachelle scolded.

"It is a big place." Derrell agreed. "Too big." He folded his hands across his lap and bowed his head. "You know what's out there, the safest place for you is with us." His eyes darted over to where his shotgun rest against the wall.

"I know…" _I know you're afraid of the world, but I'm not._ Is what Tatum wanted to say, but she thought better of it and took another bite of her food. The now, all too familiar, sound of a vertibird could be heard in the distance. Tatum jumped up from her seat and rushed outside.

"That child…" Derrell swore under his breath.

"Pa! She's climbing up on to the roof!" Rachelle could see Tatum placing the ladder against the side of the house and climbing up. The two ghouls hopped out of their chairs and raced outside. "Tatum! You get down here right now!" Rachelle yelled at the top of her lungs in her raspy ghoul voice.

"But they're heading this way! I wanna see them." Tatum hopped up and down like a child waiting for the ice cream man.

"Get down here before they see you!" It was Derrell's turn to yell.

"Stop jumping around, you're going to fall!" Rachelle shrieked just as Tatum's foot slipped and she came tumbling to the edge of the roof. She caught herself on the gutter and dangled two-stories from the ground. She screamed and her legs swung violently, kicking the ladder away from the house. It landed with a THUD.

"Help!" She bawled and tried to pull herself back on to the roof but the old nails holding the gutter against the roof came out and it bent under her weight. She screamed again as Derrell and Rachelle frantically tried to raise the ladder back against the wall.

"I'll catch you!" Derrell promised with his arms outstretched.

"No!" Tatum cried.

"It's alright, you're going to be alright." Derrell kept reassuring her. Rachelle was the first to notice the _whirring_ sound of the minigun spinning. She turned just in time to see the bullets flying at her and her father as two Brotherhood soldiers dropped from the vertibird.

Tatum could hear the gun, hear the vertibird close by, and could hear Rachelle's terrified scream. But she couldn't see any of it from where she was hanging. Derrell's shouts of reassurance had stopped, Rachelle's cries of concern were gone as well.

"Help!" Tatum called trying to look over her shoulder. Her hands were slipping and more and more of the gutter was pulling away from the wall. There was a THUNK on the wall near her. It startled her and she flinched, losing her grip. She screamed all the way down, squeezing her eyes shut. She waited for the CRUNCH that would inevitably happen once she hit the ground. But it never happened. Instead she was caught by a Brotherhood soldier that had climbed part way up the ladder.

"I gotcha!" He called as he pulled the girl close to him. "I gotcha." Tatum kept her eyes shut tight, and her arms around the soldier's neck even tighter, as they descended the ladder. Once safely on the ground, the soldier set her down. Only once she was on her feet did she open her eyes. She looked up at the man in front of her. He was tall, in his 30's, and muscular.

"Thank you." She could barely make the words audible, but he heard her well enough.

"Just doing my job." He said. "What's a young girl like you doing all by herself out here?" Tatum was confused by his question.

"I'm not by myself… My family is with me." She turned away from the soldier and towards the house where Derrell and Rachelle had been. Their bloody bodies were in pieces, scattered across the lawn. The shriek of horror that tore itself from Tatum's lips caused her knees to give out from under her. She sobbed into her hands as her whole body shook. Every ounce of hope, love, life, joy, had been sucked from her and she shriveled into a ball on the ground. A sobbing, trembling ball.

"Civilian?!" The solider jumped back startled. He desperately looked around at his comrades who were all just as confused as he was. A scribe hopped off the vertibird, which had landed in a clearing near the house, and ran over towards the soldier and civilian girl.

"I got it." She said and pushed back on the soldier. He stepped away and gave the two women space. She visually checked to see if the girl had any injuries on her, but couldn't see any. "What's wrong?" She asked placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. Tatum jerked away. She stared at the scribe in horror and disgust as she crawled, backwards, away from her.

"You killed them!" Tatum screamed. "You killed them!"

"The ghouls?" The scribe asked, more confused now than she was before.

"My family!" Tatum could barely breathe, her stomach felt like it was in her throat. She leaned over and threw up all the contents of her stomach. The scribe looked at her comrades. One soldier pointed to the pile of ghoul pieces and mouthed: "family?" The scribe nodded.

"Those ghouls were your family? But weren't they trying to get you?" The scribe asked but Tatum was too upset to reply. "That's why you were on the roof, right? They chased you up there?"

Tatum tried to respond, to tell them they fucking murdered her family, that she was only on the roof to get a better look at them, and that her family was concerned for her when she slipped. But none of that mattered now, they were dead. She was alone again. The scribe stood and made her way back to the man in the large metal suit.

"Sir?" She asked. Her commanding officer thought for a moment.

"If those ghouls weren't feral, then we just killed her family. As… deplorable as it is, that was her family." The paladin paused, deep in thought. "We'll take her back with us. We've made a grave mistake. Maybe Elder Maxson can help this girl."

Tatum didn't fight against them as they carried her to the vertibird, she had no reason to. Whatever they did to her didn't matter, her life had ended when they killed her family. She sat, limp, in her seat as they buckled her in. She had wanted to ride in a vertibird since she first saw them, and now she was getting her wish. Although now, she didn't want to have anything to do with it. The entire ride, Tatum sat with her knees to her chest, crying her eyes out. She had lost her mother when she was very young. So young that she couldn't remember what she looked like, how she sounded, how she felt. Then her father died while trying to protect her from raiders. He held them off as she ran. She went back several days later and found his body impaled on a pole. And now, now the ghouls that had been hated their entire postwar lives simply because they were unfortunate enough to live, were torn to pieces by a minigun.

 _I should have stayed inside. Why did I have to climb up to the roof? If I hadn't, they would still be alive. Their death is entirely my fault. Mine and these horrid people._

The vertibird approached the large ship and turned to face away from it. A large, claw-like, metal arm attached itself to the vertibird and pulled it into place. The pilot shut off the engine and unbuckled. The scribe woman unbuckled herself and slowly grabbed Tatum's seatbelt.

"We're here. This is the Prydwen, it's the Brotherhood of Steel's main base. Well, this and the airport below us." She explained but Tatum felt hollow. Silent tears still streaked down her face. The belt _clicked_ and the scribe pulled it away from her. "Come on." She held out her hand but Tatum ignored it. She remained seated, no will to move. "Please." The scribe encouraged as she gently tugged on Tatum's hand. The young girl relented and let her feet fall out from under her and land on the metal floor. She numbly walked behind the scribe as she led her off the vertibird, with the assistance of the paladin who grabbed her under the arms like a father would do with his small daughter.

He carefully set Tatum down, and made a circular gesture in the air with his hand. Every member of the Brotherhood that had been on the vertibird circled around Tatum, preventing her from going anywhere that they didn't want her to, like over the railing.

The group moved forward and made a sharp right towards a flight of stairs that led into the ship. All around was metal. Metal walkways, metal railings, metal stairs, and metal men. This ship felt like the coldest place on earth. Inside the Prydwen wasn't much better, just as metal and just as cold.

The group led Tatum towards an open room with large windows in the front. A man in a big coat and a dark brotherhood suit stood at the windows, looking out into the night. He turned when the group approached.

"Paladin Ryker, welcome back." He eyed the group of soldiers and Tatum hid behind the large man that had caught her when she fell from the roof. "The mission was a success?" He asked, slightly suspicious that the whole squad had come to give the report.

"Yes sir." The paladin answered with a salute, his fist over his chest. "The super mutants are no more."

"Good." Their leader, the man with dark hair and piercing green eyes said. "However?" He asked, his expression never changing from the stern look that seemed permanently etched on to his face.

"However, on our way back…" The paladin paused as if he was trying to come up with the words to explain the massacre they had brought upon Tatum's family. "On our way back there was an unfortunate mishap." He turned slightly to look behind him and found Tatum hiding behind the soldier. He reached for her and brought her forward. "We _thought_ we were rescuing this girl from some ferals." Tatum tried to hide when the man's cold eyes met hers, but the paladin had a firm grasp on her arm. "We saw the girl standing on a rooftop and two ghouls on the ground below her. She slipped and was clinging to the side for dear life as the ghouls reached out to get her. We quickly stepped in to action, protecting the people of the commonwealth is one of our main priorities—"

Their leader cut him off, "I am well aware of our priorities paladin. Now tell me where you made a mistake." His words were just as cold as his eyes.

"It turns out that those ghouls were not ferals. They were… her family. From where we were standing it looked as if they were trying to attack her. Sir." He concluded his story quickly and snapped another salute, the rest of the group followed his lead. The leader looked at each of his men, and woman, and saw that they seemed ready to accept any form of punishment. The man looked at Tatum, she averted her eyes from his.

"You killed her ghoul family, and brought her to me?" He clarified. The paladin nodded and affirmed with a "sir". He looked from the paladin back to Tatum. And took a deep, frustrated breath. "Dismissed. Leave the girl here. We'll have words later, paladin." He was just about the scariest man Tatum had ever seen. More terrifying than any raider. He had so much power, an entire ship full of men and women that would follow his every command. And now she was going to be alone with him.

The group of soldiers left the room and climbed a ladder to another part of the ship. Tatum watched as they, one by one, climbed the ladder and left her with their leader. She held her breath when the last person, the scribe woman, had vanished from her sight. Slowly she turned her attention to the man that stood before her.

"I am Elder Maxson. Welcome to the Brotherhood of Steel." He said without batting an eye. Tatum stared at him, really getting a good look for the first time. He was taller than her, muscular with dark hair that was shaved on the sides and long on top. He had a thick beard and had several scars on his face, the most prominent was the one under his right eye.

"What?" Tatum finally found her voice.

"It was my men that removed you from your home, so I will bestow upon you a new home. The Brotherhood." He said this so matter-of-factly that Tatum had to do a double-take.

"You want me to join you? After you killed my family!?" Her voice was steadily coming back to her, and it was strong. "I don't want to join you people! I want to go home!" She was screaming at him and he didn't flinch. He watched the girl as she vented her anger. "You mother fuckers killed my family! Your stupid gun ruined our house! I just wanted to see your stupid vertibird! I hate you!" She continued screaming until she was wracked with tears. Her body falling to the floor as she doubled over and wept. Elder Maxson continued to watch as she exhausted herself. He waited patiently for her sobs to lessen before he spoke.

"I understand your hatred towards us. They made a mistake and they will be punished for jumping to false conclusions." He stated. "I am offering you a new home, since your other one was taken from you."

"Go to hell." Tatum looked up at him from where she was crouching and stared him straight in the eyes for the first time. "You and everyone on this ship." For the first time she saw a bit of anger in his cold and calculating eyes. Her courage was rapidly depleting.

"Very well." He said as calm as always. "Knight!" He called and another man in a metal suit came in to the room.

"Sir." He acknowledged.

"Take this girl to Paladin Danse's quarters and stand guard outside the room. If you see him on your way, tell him I would have a word with him." The knight saluted Elder Maxson and turned towards Tatum. Elder Maxson spoke: "Go with him. It is clear that you have been through a lot today and need a moment to yourself." She didn't feel like having the metal man forcefully drag her through the ship so she mustered up all her strength and got to her feet. Elder Maxson gave the knight a dismissive nod and Tatum followed him out of the room.

They climbed the ladder to the Prydwen's main deck and stopped at the door to the left of the ladder. The knight knocked on it, metal on metal, and waited for a reply. There wasn't one so he opened the door. Tatum peeked inside. There were lockers, metal of course, and a desk, also metal. A bed, and a dog dish. The blue plastic dog dish stood out amongst all the harsh metal. She stepped inside to get a better look around and jumped when the door was slammed behind her.

"Hey!" She pounded on the door with her fists, not even testing the handle. It was a gesture of frustration more than anything. She took a deep breath, the room smelled like oil and… cologne? It wasn't a terrible smell, she had smelled worse. She jumped again as the loud speaker overheard clicked on.

"Paladin Danse, report to the lower deck." A man's voice, but not Elder Maxson's, announced. _Paladin Danse…_ Tatum thought. _That's the name of the person whose room I'm in._ She stood in the center of the room for several minutes, unsure what she should do. On one hand she wanted to destroy everything in the room. On the other hand she figured that wouldn't be smart and she should probably just wait until someone tells her she can go.

 _Where am I going to go?_ She asked herself. _My family is dead, and they're… pieces are still scattered across the lawn._ She couldn't go back and see that again. The image of her father, impaled on a post, still haunted her dreams. Surely, this nightmare would too.

Tired of standing and feeling completely overwhelmed, Tatum retreated to the bed. She sat down carefully, afraid that the moment she sat, Paladin Danse would come barging in and demand she be thrown overboard. Of course, no such thing happened. Her head pounded like a supersledge and her eyes stung like they were being radiated. Her legs felt like sacks of potatoes and her arms shook like a junkie's. There was a heavy pressure on her chest, she figured it was her heart exploding.

Exhausted to the point of hysteria, Tatum fell backwards on to the bed. She tucked her legs up and wrapped her arms around them defensively. Within moments she was drifting off to sleep.

* * *

Twelve year old Tatum clung to her father's leg. At least ten raiders stood in front of them, blocking their escape. In one hand, her father held her close, the other held a 10mm pistol.

"Think you can come in to our home and just take whatever you want?" The raider with the blood splattered boots sneered.

"I didn't know the area was claimed. We didn't take anything, we'll just be on our way." Tatum's father spoke calmly and precisely.

"Hear that boys?" Bloody Boots laughed. "They're just gonna go on their way." The rest of the raiders joined him, laughing and pointing at the two of them.

"Please, I have caps. Let us go." Her father didn't move to reach for the caps, he maintained his grip on his daughter and his gun.

"'Ere's an idea." The raider with the broken nose spoke up. "'Ow 'bout we take yer caps, and yer daughter…" He licked his lips and made an obscene slurping noise. The others howled with laughter. Tatum gripped her father tighter and he patted her on the shoulder five times: quick, slow, slow, quick, slow. It was their code for: "Get the hell out of here and hide." Tears welled up in her eyes but she tapped her father back: slow, quick, quick, slow, quick.

As soon as he felt the last tap, he unloaded his gun on as many raiders as he could. Tatum turned and sprinted towards the door without looking back to see if her father was alright. She ran until her legs couldn't carry her anymore. Her knees gave out and she skidded to the ground, crying out as the pavement skinned her knees, elbows, hands, and chin.

Feeling dread spread throughout her body like ice in her veins, she got to her feet and made her way back to the raider den. Slowly her feet propelled her forward, her legs felt like jelly. When she reached the door she pressed her ear to it. There was no sign of the raiders, so she pull it open and cautiously stepped inside. Turning down the halls, dimly lit by candles that were almost burnt out, she made her way back to the room she had left her father in.

The scent of blood filled her nose and she fought back the bile that rose in her throat. There, in the center of the room was her father, impaled on a metal pole like some kind of flag. She was so horrified she couldn't even scream. She stared as her head tried to keep up with her eyes. _What is this? That can't be him. It can't be._ His foot twitched and the smallest of moans could be heard. She raced forward, not thinking about anything except the fact that her father could still be alive and he needed her help.

A mine on the floor starting beeping and Tatum threw herself forward, clinging to her father's body as she screamed.

Elder Maxson stiffened as the girl clung to him, screaming. With a straight face he turned his head to look at Paladin Danse. Danse's eyebrows shot upwards and his eyes widened but he didn't say a word. Maxson looked down at the girl who was still half asleep and bawling her eyes out as she clung to his waist. He cleared his throat loudly. Finally she opened her eyes and the realization of where she was hit her like a ton of bricks. She released Maxson like he was a bloatfly and jumped off the bed to get as far away from the men as possible. She looked like a caged wild animal, growling from the corner.

"For a moment there, I thought you didn't hate me." Maxson glanced at Danse then turned his attention back to Tatum. "Bad dream?"

"Just reliving the past…" She spat. "Not that it matters to you."

"Clearly." He said, his anger starting to get the better of him. He checked himself and took a deep breath. "If I didn't care for your well being, you would not be aboard my ship."

"Why do you care?" She was yelling.

"Because my men made a mistake, therefore _I_ made a mistake. And I don't walk away from my problems."

"Well don't worry about it. I can take care of myself." She looked at paladin Danse who was showing every bit of anger that Maxson was feeling. "I don't want your help. Your people have done enough."

"You ungrateful—" Danse started to scold but was silenced by Elder Maxson raising his hand.

"It's alright paladin. She has every right to be upset, she just lost her… family."

"Stop it! Stop saying it like that!" She was throwing a full blown tantrum now, stomping feet and red faced as she screamed at the top of her lungs. "They were my family. They loved me and I loved them! What the hell is wrong with you? They warned me about the Brotherhood… they warned me but I didn't listen." She was losing steam. "I should have listened." She buried her face in her hands again. _Why didn't I listen?_

"And what is it, exactly, that they warned you about?" Maxson was curious to hear what the Commonwealth had to say about him and his army.

"They said that you were hypocrites and racists." She sobbed.

"Hypocrites?!" Danse repeated. "In what way?" Maxson let him ask because he wanted to know too.

"You take all the prewar technology and hoard it for yourselves."

"This is true." Maxson spoke. "What else?"

"That you kill anyone that's not human."

"This is also, mostly, true. We are trying to rid the world of the abominations that walk around as if they aren't diseased, mutated freaks."

"That's my FAMILY you're talking about!" She grabbed the nearest object, an alarm clock, and threw it at Elder Maxson with all her strength. He caught it easily and handed it to Danse who had taken several steps towards Tatum.

"I already told you that the extermination of your _family_ ," the word seemed difficult for him to say. "Was a mistake. I was not including them in my previous statement." Elder Maxson still remained calm while paladin Danse was fuming. Smoke was practically coming out of his ears.

"But they still killed them and nothing, _nothing,_ you do can make it better." She said with the most clarity she's had all day.

"I know." He took a step towards the door. "Come with me. The paladin requires his room now." He reached for the handle and saw that Tatum hadn't moved. "That was not a request, civilian."

"I'm not going anywhere near him." She pointed at a still very pissed off Danse.

"Stand down paladin." He ordered. "There, now you have nothing to fear." He opened the door and held it for her. She took a deep breath and slowly, moving along the walls, made her way towards the door. Paladin Danse did his best not to acknowledge the girl even though he wanted to squash her insubordinate head.

Tatum slipped past Danse and left the room with the Elder. He led her to the room next to Danse's. This room had a lot more stuff in it, but it didn't seem like it was bigger. Straight ahead was a table and chairs with a globe on it, cups and ashtrays. Past that, at the back of the room was a desk with a computer on it. There were also several bottles of liquor, a box of cigars, a gold lighter and a gold watch. To the right was a bed and to the left was a blue and white couch and two cabinets on either side, one was tall the other was short and long. The tall cabinet had a tool box and several tools, a baseball glove and ball, an American flag folded and encased in a wooden triangle, a chess board and a brahmin skull at the top. The short and long cabinet had several ammo boxes.

"Is this your room?" Tatum asked as Elder Maxson closed the door behind them.

"Yes." He answered as he stepped past her and opened a drawer across from the bed. He pulled out a bottle of water, purified. She watched as he poured two glasses full. He set the bottle down and handed her the glass.

"Thanks…" She hesitantly took the glass from him and put it to her lips. She didn't drink until he did. He raised his glass and took a swig then set it back down on the table. She tilted the glass and let the cool, clean liquid pour into her mouth. She meant to only drink a little but she couldn't stop. She hadn't realized how dry her throat was as she downed the entire glass in one go.

"More?" Maxson asked as he reached for the glass. She gave it to him and he filled it up. Once it was back in her hands she eagerly put it to her lips and swallowed all the water at once. Maxson pushed the bottle of water towards her, clearly the girl was thirsty. He sat at the table as she poured herself another cup. She drank another glass full before stopping. Suddenly she was feeling very conscientious about her lust for water. Politely she set the glass down without making a sound.

"Thank you." She said quietly.

"Sit." Maxson gestured to the chair across from him. She obliged and sat, glad that there was a table between them. "You never told me your name."

"It's Tatum. Tatum Shaw." She told him. His eyebrows scrunched together slightly. "It is too a girls' name."

"Of course." He agreed, although he didn't. He sat up as straight as he could, all business. "Miss Shaw, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to you for the terrible loss of your family." To Tatum he sounded like he was reading the lines off of a card.

"Thanks." She said, trying to ignore the fact that he didn't sound sorry at all. In fact she was starting to think that he might not have any feelings.

"I just want you to know that I lost my family too, so I do know how you feel." He looked her straight in the eyes as he said it. Tatum was stunned.

"You did?" She inquired.

"Yes. My father was a paladin and died on the battle field. My mother sent me to be trained under Elder Lyons when I was very young. She died shortly after I left." He still spoke without emotion behind his words.

"I'm sorry." She said, and meant it. "I was too young to remember my mom, and raiders killed my dad when I was twelve. Rachelle and Derrell took me in a couple years ago. They were the ghouls." She wasn't sure why she was telling him all of this, but it seemed like he wanted to talk.

"You won't like hearing this, but you should know." Tatum braced herself, clenching her fists under the table. "People die. Every day, all the time. Sometimes those people are ones you care about and there's nothing you can do to stop it. That's life."

"Why are you saying this?" He was right, Tatum didn't like hearing it.

"Just because someone dies does not mean that you get to give up on living too."

"What?"

"I understand how it feels to lose someone you love, but you can't let it interfere with your life. In the wasteland, it could be very dangerous to lose yourself to grief."

"Is this supposed to be a pep-talk? Because it is SO not working." Tatum's hands were shaking under the table. She had the strong urge to throw something at him again.

"I am just giving you some advice."

"So you're saying that you didn't mourn when you lost your parents?"

"Of course I did. I was ten when my mother passed away. But that didn't mean that I stopped participating in my duties. I mourned on my time."

"I don't have duties. All the time is my time."

"That's where you are wrong. Everyone aboard the Prydwen has a job. That includes you. Today you have been excused from duty, but tomorrow you will report to me at 0600." Tatum's jaw hit the floor.

"I don't want to be on this damn ship!" As she spoke the volume increased. "You can't just assign me a job! I want off, now!" She stood up and stamped her foot. Elder Maxson rose from his chair as well.

"Listen," His tone made Tatum shiver but she was determined not to back down. "I am trying my damnedest to make this right and you are fighting me every step of the way." He finally started to raise his voice. "Don't you think that I have a thousand other obligations to attend to?" He slammed his fist against the table and Tatum jumped back in fear. "And here I am, wasting my time on an ungrateful brat that can't even see a good thing when it's being shoved down her throat!"

"A GOOD THING!?" She lost it. "YOU KILLED MY FUCKING FAMILY!" She took a step forward only to take several back as Elder Maxson flipped the table in front of him.

"I don't want to hear another word about your ghouls. You think they _loved_ you? Did you know that every moment spent with them was killing you? How much radiation do you think they soaked up in their lives?" He was walking menacingly closer to her as she was backing away from him. "If they truly cared about you they would have let you go. You would have been safer without them." Tatum's back hit the cold metal wall and Maxson continued to come towards her. She looked around to see if there was anything she could use to defend herself.

"Please." Tatum begged as Elder Maxson stopped inches away from her. She held her hands in front of her, pressing against his chest.

"Please." He repeated with a scoff. " _Please_ , what? Stop telling you the truth? Stop telling you the dangers of the world? You have no idea what is out there and what it is capable of. If raiders are the worst you've dealt with, consider yourself lucky." He didn't move, didn't touch her and didn't push her hands away. He just stared in to her eyes and watched as she squirmed in front of him.

"I'm sorry." She said, desperate to make him stop. He stared at her for a moment longer, watching a tear roll down her cheek before taking a step back and looking away. She breathed a sigh of relief as he walked back to the center of the room and picked up the overturned table.

"I apologize. I lost my temper." He said while he picked up the contents of the table that had been so rudely thrown to the floor. "I'll have someone show you to your bed." He straightened his coat, then his hair and walked to the door. Worried she'd make him mad again, Tatum quickly followed. He led her down the walkway towards the cafeteria. He received salutes as he walked.

"Squire." Maxson called to a young boy, no older than 8.

"Elder, sir!" The boy saluted with so much gusto that it almost made Tatum smile.

"Show our newest member to a spare bed. It will belong to her from now on."

"Yes sir!" Tatum followed the boy up some stairs and towards a row of beds. She didn't dare turn around to look at Elder Maxson. "This one is empty." The boy pointed at the bed.

"Thank you." She said and tried to smile.

"Uh… you're welcome." He replied, unsure of what to make of her failed smile. Luckily he didn't press the subject. He left her to her thoughts. She sat down on the bed, it was just like all the other beds on the ship. It was a single, with no blankets and no pillows. _At least the higher ups are sleeping like this too._ She took comfort in the fact that Elder Maxson and Paladin Danse weren't being spoiled with good beds.

She slid off her old, holey sneakers and set them on the floor at the foot of her bed. She laid down and stared up at the round metal ceiling. _Is this really my life now?_ She looked to her right, a woman was sound asleep on the bed next to hers. There was another bed on her left, but it didn't have any occupants yet. She sighed. _Oh six hundred… That's like, 6 o'clock, right?_ She sighed again and grabbed the yellow alarm clock on the stand next to the bed.

* * *

5:45 AM came much too quickly. She felt like she had just closed her eyes when the alarm went off. She scrambled to turn it off so that she wouldn't wake anyone around her. Bad enough she was on the leader's bad side, she didn't need anyone else to hate her. After putting her shoes back on and stretching, trying to crack every stiff bone in her body, she got to her feet and tried to find her way back to Elder Maxson's room. _It's just a straight shot._ She told herself.

When she went down the stairs she was surprised to see so many people in the cafeteria. She squeezed her way past the crowd trying her best not to be noticed. Once away from the crowd she let out a sigh.

"Didn't sleep well?" Elder Maxson's voice called from behind. She flinched in surprise and hoped he hadn't noticed. He gestured that she should follow him. He led her to the ship's medical clinic. "Tatum, this is Knight Captain Cade." She stared at Maxson. "Our doctor." He added. "You will need a medical examination, just like all the other new recruits."

"Hello Tatum." Cade greeted her. She returned the pleasantries. "I just have a few questions for you and then a quick physical examination." She nodded her head and glanced over her shoulder at Elder Maxson. _Is he really going to just stand there?_ She looked back at the doctor.

"I'm ready."

"Good. The first question: were you, as a child, ever exposed to radiation for an extended period of time?" He held up a clipboard and a pen. Tatum looked back as Elder Maxson with a frown.

"Yes. I lived with two ghouls for the last two years." She told Cade. He looked horrified and wrote down several notes.

"We'll take care of that in a moment. Next question: have you ever had, or come in contact with a person confirmed to be carrying a communicable disease?"

"Um… I'm not sure. I've never really been sick but I think my mom died of illness." She peeked over her shoulder at Maxson, he was rubbing the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb, his head tilted down.

"I'm sure you're fine if you didn't get sick as well. Last question." He took a deep breath. "Please, answer honestly." Tatum nodded. "Have you ever had sexual relations with any species considered non-human?"

"What!?" Tatum blushed completely red. "No! No… I—no. Uh uh. Never." She babbled on, completely caught off guard. Maxson pretended to rub his beard in order to hide the smirk on his face.

"Excellent, that's the answer I like to hear." Knight Captain Cade scribbled down a note and then set the clipboard down on his desk. "Now, if you'll just step over here." He placed a hand on her arm and directed her towards the examination table. "No need to lay down, you can sit if you like."

She hopped up on the bed and looked around the room nervously. Elder Maxson was still in the room and standing near the bed. Cade had went back to his desk and opened a locker. He seemed to be grabbing some supplies. _What if he asks me to take off my clothes? There's no door!_ She was starting to panic. Her fear only got worse when he approached her with a giant needle. Her reflexes made her arm shoot out and grab on to Elder Maxson's wrist.

"Wh—what are you doing with that?!" She stared at the needle, not even aware that she had a hold of Maxson.

"This is to flush your system. Help get rid of the radiation. I guarantee you'll feel better afterwards."

"No, I feel fine." She looked at Elder Maxson in a desperate attempt for some sympathy. "Really, I'm OK."

"Why don't you lay down?" Maxson suggested as he lifted his arm for her to see. She quickly released his arm.

"No. I'm seriously alright." She was trembling.

"It will only sting for a moment." The doctor reassured her, but it didn't help in the slightest.

"Please. Please Elder Maxson. I don't want to." She was begging now, completely unashamed. He looked at the doctor and they shared a secret unspoken message.

"Lay down, Tatum." Maxson instructed.

"No!" She was getting close to screaming. Maxson stepped in front of her and Cade and placed both hands on her arms. He looked her in the eyes and spoke softly.

"This is necessary. Do you like your hair?" She looked at her soft brown curls and nodded. "Radiation will make your hair fall out." She already knew that, both her ghoul parents were completely hairless. "Knight Captain Cade will put down the needle." He looked over his shoulder and Cade nodded. Tatum watched as he set the syringe down on a medical tray. "There, now he'll just finish with the rest of the examination. No needles." She could tell Elder Maxson was trying to trick her somehow but she went along with it.

"Ok." She agreed and Elder Maxson gave her a nod before stepping out of the doctor's way. Cade approached her with a small flashlight and a flat wooden stick.

"Open your mouth and say "ah"." He instructed. She did as she was told. He flashed the light in to her mouth and pressed the stick on her tongue. "Have you always had bloody gums?" He asked casually.

"Thor uh cuffle nunths." She replied.

"Hmm." He nodded and pulled the tongue depressor out. "Bleeding gums is a sign of radiation sickness." He mentioned casually before lightly striking her knee with a small mallet. Her leg kicked out and he did the same thing to the other with the same results. "Good." He said as he marked a couple things down on his clipboard. While he was over at his desk Tatum turned to Elder Maxson.

"I know what you're doing." She whispered. He raised an eyebrow. "You're trying to show me how the radiation is affecting me so that I'll let him give me a shot." She pouted her lip out and folded her arms over her chest.

"Then will you let him?" He spoke in a normal tone.

"No." She replied defiantly.

"Then he'll do it without your consent."

"He can't."

"He can, and he will because I told him to." Elder Maxson pointed to the syringe and nodded at Cade. The two men approached her and she made a run for it. She didn't get far before she was scooped up, from the waist and hoisted back in to the room. Maxson lifted her on to the bed and pushed her down. He held her in place. She wanted to scream but bit her lip instead.

"This will only take a second if you don't fight it!" The doctor pleaded with her as he wiped the inside of her elbow with disinfectant. She squirmed but knew she'd get nowhere and probably only make it worse. She gave up and turned her head towards the wall, still biting her lip and stifling a sob. "Thank you." Cade breathed a breath of relief as he plunged the needle in to her arm.

She whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut tight as she reached up with her free arm and grasped Maxson forearm. A small trickle of blood was running down the side of her chin. Maxson watched as the girl shook with fear, or pain. She was a thin and delicate looking thing. He would have to change that, feed her well and get her in to an exercise program. Cade pulled the needle from her arm and wiped the bead of blood that had formed. He pressed a cottonball to her arm and wrapped two strips of bandage around it.

"All done." He said with an exasperated look on his face, but Tatum didn't see it. Her eyes were still shut tight and her hand was still holding on to Maxson. She laid there and tried to regulate her breathing. For a moment both men thought she might lose consciousness, but after a while she opened her eyes and released the elder's arm.

"Can I go now?" She asked pitifully.

"Is everything going to be an ordeal with you?" Maxson sighed. "Yes, you are dismissed. For now." He made sure she was looking at him before continuing. "Report to Senior Scribe Neriah at 1200- at noon."

"Alright."

"Alright?" Maxson repeated. "Is that how you receive an order?"

"Uh…" She remember the young scribe and how everyone else answered him on the ship. "I mean, yes sir?"

He nodded. "Dismissed."

Tatum quickly marched back to her bed keeping her head down the whole time, trying her best not to look at anyone. She didn't want to talk to anyone here, she _wasn't_ staying. At least that's what she told herself. Once she made it back to the safety of her bed, like her own little island, she chanced a look around. People were busily walking by, some in tight suits, and others in sweaters with millions of pockets. There were also the occasional metal person. She would have to learn what they were called.

"Noon, huh?" She said to herself as she reached for her clock. A several hour nap didn't sound so bad after her traumatizing experience in the medical ward. She set the alarm for 11:30, giving her enough time to find this 'Senior Scribe Neriah'.


	2. Chapter 2

Tatum's alarm rang and she flopped her hand over to the table, aimlessly slapping to try and locate the button. Not finding it she sat up and properly clicked it off. She yawned and stretched, then rubbed the sleep from her eyes. That nap turned out to be exactly what she needed. She felt rejuvenated and ready to face anything, even the Brotherhood. She redressed quickly and stopped the nearest person she found.

"Excuse me." She said with more confidence than she felt. "Where can I find Senior Scribe Neriah?"

"She's in her lab." The soldier gave her directions and went about his way in a hurry. _Not the friendliest people…_ Tatum thought grumpily but shook it off and followed his instructions. As she walked above the cafeteria her stomach gave a ferocious growl. Her hand instinctively covered her midsection in an attempt to muffle the sound. It occurred to her that she hadn't eaten since dinner with her family, and even then she had only had a little.

With a deep sigh she continued forward, ignoring her stomach for now. To the very back of the ship was Scribe Neriah's lab. Tatum slowly walked towards the middle of the area as everything in the lab caught her attention. It turned out that the "lab" wasn't even a real laboratory. It was just an open area, like every other area on the ship except for the three highest ranking officers' rooms and the restrooms. At least she _hoped_ the restrooms were closed off, the medical examination room sure wasn't.

"You must be Tatum." A woman with medium brown skin and dark hair said. She wore a strange lab coat with a thick leather belt that had pouches all around it and a large metal thing around her neck.

"Yes." She turned her full attention to the woman walking towards her. "Ma'am." She added remembering that she was the lowest on the totem pole.

"Welcome to my little slice of heaven." She gestured to the science experiments around her. Tatum took this opportunity to look around again. On one table laid a massive green man, two tables held robotic men, another area had mutfruit plants and a Mr. Handy attending to them. Rachelle had a Mr. Handy before the bombs fell. She was always saying how much she missed it. Her heart sank as she thought about her family. She needed a distraction.

"Is that a supermutant?" Tatum asked, pointing at the green man.

"Yes." Scribe Neriah raised an eyebrow. "You've never seen one before?" Tatum shook her head. "That's…" Neriah's eyes widened. "That's amazing. I've never met anyone that hasn't seen a supermutant before." She chuckled. "Consider yourself lucky."

"Yeah." Tatum agreed as she thought back to what Elder Maxson had said about her being lucky that she's only ever dealt with raiders. A shiver ran through her spine as she thought of what other kind of terrible things could be out in the commonwealth.

"Anyway," Neriah said getting Tatum's attention again. "Elder Maxson told me to put you to work. He also said that you didn't have any useful skills."

"Great." Tatum rolled her eyes, annoyed at the Elder.

"Is he wrong?" Neriah asked seriously.

"Uh… well, yeah." Tatum straightened her back. "I can do things. I had a garden I tended to back home." She glanced over at the Mutfruit plants.

"Hmm. That's good but not what we need. We've already got the garden covered." Neriah thought for a moment, cupping her chin in her thumb and finger.

"I can also cook." Tatum offered as her stomach growled again. She hoped no one heard.

"That's not my division, but that is something you could offer to Elder Maxson, maybe he'll let you help in the kitchen. Not that there's much cooking, it's mostly just warming up whatever we find in the commonwealth." She folded her arms over her chest and studied Tatum. The young girl squirmed under her inspection.

A familiar chattering sound came from the corner and Tatum's head snapped towards it. Two mole rats were wrestling in a cage. The scent of them wafted in to her nose and she immediately lost her appetite.

"That's it!" Neriah exclaimed making Tatum jump. "You can tend to the mole rats."

"What?" She didn't like the sound of that one bit.

"Yes, they need fed twice a day and their cage cleaned once a day. Unless there's a big mess then obviously it'll need cleaned again."

"Are you serious?" Tatum's stomach turned.

"Of course. Even you can feed mole rats." She said this like it was the simplest thing anyone could ever do. Derrell used to always call Tatum a little mole rat but that didn't mean she liked them. More often than not she would have to run inside and get Derrell to shoot them and keep them out of their crops.

"I don't have to touch them, do I?" She asked nervously.

"No. And it's best that you don't. They may seem tame, but I assure you, they are not."

"How will I clean the cage if they're in there?"

"See that little door right there?" Neriah pointed to a part of the cage that looked like it could open. It blended in so well with the rest of the cage that Tatum hadn't noticed it. She nodded her head to let her know that she saw it now. "You'll put one of the small holding cages there and chase them in with the broom through the bars." Tatum made an uneasy face. "It's actually a lot easier than it sounds." Neriah assured her with a gentle pat on the shoulder. "And don't worry about any of that today, I'll take care of it."

"Thank you." Tatum felt so relieved.

"But tomorrow, it's all you." She said with her finger raised. "They get their first feeding at 0700 and their last at 1700 hours. You clean their cage at 1100. Understood?"

Tatum nodded her head but really had no idea what times she was talking about. She would have to figure it out later.

"Good." Scribe Neriah smiled at Tatum. "Now off you go. And get something to eat before you keel over." She teased and Tatum flushed a deep red. She lowered her head as she walked to the cafeteria.

Considerably less members of the Brotherhood were in the mess hall now as opposed to this morning. Even though it was lunch time, Tatum figured most of the crew had to be off the Prydwen, probably out killing someone else's family. She grimaced as she approached the Brotherhood Mess Officer.

"Hi." He greeted cautiously. "Everything OK?"

"Oh!" Tatum wiped the look from her face and tried to paint a positive one on instead. "Yes, I'm fine. Just really hungry." Now that she was away from the mole rats and back around the sweet aroma of food, her appetite was back and howling.

"Good, because we have plenty of food. Anything in particular sound good to you?"

"Something warm. And meaty."

"Warm and meaty, coming right up." He chuckled and Tatum smiled. _He doesn't seem so bad._ She plopped herself down on one of the bar stools and rubbed her hands together in anticipation. The Mess Officer placed a tray of Salisbury steak into the microwave. Tatum watched in awe. She had heard about microwaves from Rachelle but had never actually seen a working one. She watched as the meal turned in a slow circle as the machine hummed pleasantly.

When the timer was up and the microwave _dinged_ , the Mess Officer opened the door, retrieved the meal and placed it in front of Tatum with a fork and knife.

"Dinner is served." He said with a smile, enjoying the look of bliss on Tatum's face. "Never had Salisbury steak before?"

"No." She said with a shake of her head as she inhaled its scent. "It smells heavenly."

"Tastes pretty good too." He laughed and snapped open a bottle of Nuka Cola for her. She cut through the meat like it was warm butter and placed it in her mouth. It was soft and melted in her mouth unlike the mole rat meat or squirrel bits she was always having to eat. She moaned slightly before realizing what a dork she must look like.

"Thanks." She muttered as she took a big gulp from the ice cold Nuka Cola. She tried to hide the blush on her face with the bottle.

"My pleasure." He replied still chuckling. He shook his head with a big grin on his face as he walked around the small cafeteria and picked up dirty plates from the tables. Tatum had to pace herself, the urge to quickly devour the steak was immense but she needed this to last. She didn't want to look like a complete barbarian.

With her meal finished and her belly full, she headed back towards her bed. _This is so boring._ She thought as she climbed the stairs. _What am I going to do with myself?_ Her only responsibilities were to feed and clean the mole rats. What was she supposed to do with the rest of her day?

She had just made it to her bed when her bladder told her it was time to go. She sighed and turned around, looking down the walkways trying to see if she could find the bathroom. She headed back down to the mess hall and asked the Mess Officer.

"We don't have a bathroom on the ship. You'd have to fly down to the airport." He told her and pointed towards the exit.

"Thanks." She mumbled, unhappy that it was so far away. _How stupid is that?_ She thought as she quickly made her way to the ladder leading to the lower deck. She climbed down and saw Elder Maxson talking with another man. The other man was tall and dark skinned, his back perfectly straight. He saluted Elder Maxson and walked past Tatum without even a glance in her direction. She watched as he descended the stairs and walked into the control room below.

"Going somewhere?" Maxson asked from directly behind her. For being a metal ship, he was definitely stealthy.

"I have to use the bathroom. I was told there isn't one on the ship."

"You don't have clearance to leave the ship." He told her with his typical straight face.

"I have to use the _bathroom._ " She repeated incredulously.

"I understand. But you do not have clearance to leave the ship, _without supervision._ "

"Why didn't you say that before?" She was getting frustrated again and fast.

"Because you didn't let me finish. Now, are we going to stand here all afternoon or are we going to the vertibird?"

"Whoa, what? You're going?" She didn't like the sound of that.

"Is that a problem, civilian?" He questioned, his eyebrows scrunching together.

"No." She answered with a huff. " _Sir_." She added with as much attitude as she could muster. Something, or maybe everything, about Elder Maxson made her want to scream and jump off the Prydwen.

"You _will_ adjust your attitude, civilian." He sounded like he wanted to add an "or else" to the end. He didn't wait for her to reply as he walked briskly past her and out the door. He held it open and looked back. "Are you coming?"

She didn't answer verbally, she just started walking. She stepped through the door and out in to the cool air. Four vertibirds were docked. One was being repaired and the others were just waiting to be used. Maxson stood close, unnervingly so, to Tatum as they walked along the path. _Does he honestly think I'm going to jump off?_ She watched him from the corner of her eyes. _Would he really stop me if I tried?_ The thought made her giddy with mischief. _But if he doesn't, then I'm dead._ She sighed and looked around disinterested.

They approached one of the docked birds and the pilot gave Elder Maxson a salute, which he returned before facing Tatum and putting his hands on her waist. He lifted and she smacked at his hands as he put her on to the vertibird.

"I can do it myself!" She screamed like a child, but Maxson ignored her. Once she was on board, he climbed up as well and pointed to an empty seat. She sat with a pout and buckled herself up. He took a seat to her left and she snapped her head to the right so that she couldn't see him. She heard his belt buckle click in to place and Maxson gave the all-clear. The pilot pushed several buttons and the bird sprang to life. The metal arm lifted and then lowered the plane until the propellers were spinning fast enough. The metal arm released the bird and they dropped ever so slightly before leveling out.

This time around Tatum was paying full attention. Her eyes lit up as they flew towards the airport. It was the most amazing thing she had ever experienced. She felt like she was free as the wind whipped through her hair, free from all the evil and horrible things in the world. She closed her eyes and just let herself _feel_.

Maxson watched the girl with the torn-at-the-knee blue jeans and faded red t-shirt with what looked like some kind of flower design in the middle, but it was faded and peeling now, almost indistinguishable.

Since her eyes were closed he took full advantage of the situation and observed her closely. She looked to be in a much better mood now. She also had some color back in her cheeks and lips, the Rad-away was working. The bandage from her injection was still wrapped around her arm, speckled with freckles. Her knee that peeked through the hole in her jeans was scrapped but scabbed over and her sneakers had holes in various spots. He turned away from her before he spoke.

"I'll be acquiring an appropriate outfit for you to wear while we're down here." He informed her and she opened her eyes with a frown, her good mood completely ruined.

"I like my clothes." She challenged.

"I do not." He stated simply.

"Well I do." She tried to turn as far away from him as possible. But it didn't matter what she did or said, if he wanted a new wardrobe for her, he'd get it. _He'd probably even put it on me himself._ She thought bitterly.

The vertibird landed smoothly and Maxson was hopping off before Tatum even unbuckled. She unclasped the safety belt and stood, a little wobbly. She hadn't gotten her air-legs yet. She approached the side of the vertibird and clumsily fell off. Maxson caught her easily, taking a step back with one leg to brace himself.

"Oof!" She said into his shoulder when she landed. Embarrassed by the entire situation she pushed herself off of him. "I'm fine." She stated and walked towards the stairs, not looking him in the eyes. He caught her by the wrist and stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Enough of this." He said in a demanding voice. She tried to withdraw her arm but he had a firm grip on it. "You will drop your attitude immediately or there will be consequences." Everyone around was watching, his integrity was on the line and that made Tatum want to fight against him even more.

"Like what?" She asked puffing out her chest and mustering up all of her courage. _What can he do to me? Expel me from the Brotherhood? Great. That's what I've wanted since I got here._ Her courage was short lived as she watched a devilish smile grace Maxson's lips. A chill went right through her as she stared at the man in front of her. He had never given her a look like this, it was even more terrifying than when he had flipped the table and screamed in her face.

"I'm glad you asked." He said with a low, calm voice. "But first, let's get you to the lavatory. We wouldn't want any accidents." He led her down the stairs and through the airport. She followed numbly, terrified of what he had in store for her. He stopped in front of the bathroom and pushed her in. The door swung closed behind her, she was alone at last.

 _I gotta get out of here!_ Her brain kicked in to overdrive like she had taken a shot of psycho. There were no windows in the bathroom and no escape. Her heart sank. It looked like the only way out was back through the door where he was undoubtedly waiting for her.

Elder Maxson could only take so much before someone had crossed the line. Tatum had crossed it and then some. When he was growing up, depending on the Commanding Officer that was administering the discipline, you would either receive extra work: cleaning or cooking, or physical punishment: harder training exercises and on occasion, beatings. As much as he wanted to hit her, and thought she deserved a good smack, he wasn't going to. He would use fear, which in some cases was worse than any physical punishment.

He waited patiently for her as the minutes went by. He knew she hadn't found a way to kill herself, something he was watching for, because he could hear her quiet sobs. She knew she was in too deep this time and nothing could help her now.

Finally she pushed open the door and stepped back in to the hallway. Maxson didn't say anything to her, he just spun on his heel and started walking and she followed obediently. Their path led them to a room full of metal crates.

"Lieutenant." Maxson addressed an elderly man.

"Elder Maxson. What can I do for you?"

"I need a uniform for her." He tilted his head slightly in Tatum's direction. The older man looked her over for a moment before disappearing amongst the crates.

"This is the logistics division." Maxson informed Tatum. "All of our supplies come through here."

"Oh." She responded because he wasn't looking at her to see her nodding her head.

"It's not the most exciting job, but it is very important." He turned his head to look at her. She nodded to show that she understood. "Not like your job. Yours is very exciting."

"Feeding mole rats?" She questioned because he didn't sound like he was joking.

"No, not that. Your _new_ job that I've just assigned you." He had an evil glint in his eye that froze Tatum to the spot. _What could he be talking about?_ She bit down on her lip and rolled it between her teeth nervously. She could taste the blood from when she bit her lip while getting the shot. She hoped she hadn't reopened the wound.

"Here we are." The lieutenant had come back carrying a folded Brotherhood uniform. "I think this will fit. Smallest we had that wasn't a child's.

"Very good." Maxson said as he took the suit from his hands and shoved them roughly in to Tatum's arms. "All's well?" He asked.

"Yes sir, everything is in place and accounted for."

"Good." Maxson nodded to the lieutenant and they both saluted before departing. Maxson grabbed on to Tatum's wrist again and led her back to the vertibird.

"I won't run away…" She said in a small voice, tired of being treated like a baby.

"I cannot trust anything you say. You are emotional and defiant." He kept an even tone as he pulled her through the airport. She sighed before she could stop herself. He glanced back at her and she averted her eyes to the ground. _Submission._ Maxson thought. _Good._

Once they were back to the vertibird, he grabbed the uniform from her hands and gestured to the bird. She placed her hands on the floor of the vertibird and tried to push herself up. Her foot slipped on the side and she couldn't get a good grip. _Damn it! I am NOT going to let him win!_ She was determined to climb aboard without his help. He watched patiently as she readjusted her position and tried again.

She could feel everyone's eyes on her and hear the snickering as she failed again and again to climb on. Finally, finding a small ding in the side of the bird, she used it to push herself up and in. She heaved heavy breaths and took a moment to try and slow her beating heart. Maxson was already standing beside her, having easily climbed aboard.

"You've had practice." She said more to herself than anyone but Maxson heard and grabbed the back of her shirt, pulling her to her feet. "Hey!" She protested but couldn't stop him.

"Get up, seeing you like that is disgraceful." He had a look on his face like he had stepped in a pile of brahmin droppings. It infuriated her. "Sit down and buckle up." She did as she was told and jammed the buckle in to place as hard as she could. Maxson ignored her temper tantrum and signaled that they were ready. The engine roared to life and away they went.

The metal arm grabbed the vertibird and set it in place. Maxson exited first and held out his hand to Tatum. If she didn't know better, he'd almost seem like a prince from a prewar fairy tale. But she did know better, he was the villain. Already worried about her "new job", she decided to suck it up and took his hand. It was much larger than her own and pleasantly warm. A nice contrast to the cold air that surrounded them. He carefully helped her out of the vertibird and walked close enough to her that their elbows bumped every couple of steps.

He led her to his meeting room, where she had first met him. "You are to meet me at 0600 tomorrow, here." He pointed to the floor. "You will be wearing your new uniform and tie your hair back."

Tatum's hands flew to her hair, her eyes widening in terror. _No. No way am I ever going to let you cut my hair._ All the women in the brotherhood had short hair, shoulder length was the longest she had seen. Her hair reached the top of her jeans. If Maxson had seen her reaction, he didn't show it.

"I will inform Senior Scribe Neriah that you will be busy tomorrow and will not be reporting for duty." He looked her over once to make sure she was comprehending what he was saying before dismissing her. She dragged her feet all the way back to her bed. Her perfect little island where no one could touch her. At least that's what she told herself to feel better. In truth, she felt her life had ended when Rachelle and Derrell were gunned down. How could she ever feel loved again, or want to be loved when it seemed her loved ones always died. _Died protecting me._

Feeling more alone than ever, surrounded by dozens of people, she buried herself in the single white sheet that was given to each bed. _Maybe, if I'm lucky, I won't wake up tomorrow or ever again._ She thought but set her alarm clock for 5:30 AM.


	3. Chapter 3

"Come with me, child." The old ghoul with the wide brimmed hat coaxed. "You're safe now." Tatum cautiously crawled out from her hiding place and took the ghoul's hand. It was like touching a hand that had been soaked in water too long, but was completely dry.

"Isn't she beautiful?" The female ghoul gasped as she looked at Tatum. "What are you doing all by yourself?"

"I don't have anyone else." She replied to the woman. "Raiders killed my dad and I've been alone since."

"Well not anymore." The man said with a wide smile. It was infectious as the ghoul woman smiled too. Tatum followed suit and tears poured over her cheeks. For the first time in several years, she was home. Her new family didn't look like other people's families but that made them even better. They were unique, and all her's.

* * *

At 6:30 AM Elder Maxson stormed his way through the Prydwen, straight to Tatum's bed. He reached out to rip the sheet from her body but froze mid-grab. He watched as she sniffled, a tear dropping to her pillow. He didn't move an inch as he watched the sleeping girl, his body still bent forward and his hand still firmly grasping the sheet. He had seen this before, in himself.

The day after his first night at the Citadel, he woke to find that he had been crying in his sleep. He remembered the dream he had been having, even to this day. He was at home with both his parents. His father wasn't dead, he was sitting in the living room reading the newspaper and his mother hadn't given him away, she was humming happily in the kitchen as she prepared dinner and little Arthur Maxson was playing with a Nuka Cola truck on the floor in front of his father.

A cold sensation, like ice water running down his back, made him release the bedsheet and stand up straight. The anger he had felt as he came to find why his newest headache was thirty minutes late, had completely vanished. He stood, watching the tears fall from her eyes, unsure of what to do.

 _We're already behind schedule._ He scolded himself and backhanded her foot. She awoke with a start and, upon seeing Maxson standing at her bedside, she scowled.

"What do you want?" She asked angrily.

"I wanted to know why you didn't show up at the arranged time. But now I see." He glared back at her, tired of her bullshit.

"What?!" She looked at her clock, it was frozen at 4:26 AM. "Damn it!" She grabbed the clock and threw it across the ship. Quick as a snake, Maxson grabbed her by the front of the shirt and lifted her off the bed, bringing her face close to his.

"Do NOT disrespect Brotherhood property. Did you even _look_ before you threw that? No, you didn't. You could've hit someone. This may come as a surprise to you, but there are other people in this world, it doesn't revolve around you." He violently released her and she fell back on to the bed. "Now put your fucking suit on and get your ass moving!" His voice echoed through the ship and everyone knew to steer clear as he made his way back to the meeting room.

Tatum scrambled out of bed and immediately started taking off her clothes, so was so afraid that Maxson might kill her that she didn't care if anyone was around to see her naked. She slid the suit on and zipped it up. It was light weight but felt tough, like she could take a bullet and not even notice. However she still wasn't in any hurry to test that theory.

She rushed to the meeting room, not meeting anyone's eyes as she ran and fixed her hair into a ponytail. When she arrived there were several other people in the room with Elder Maxson. She recognized the scribe woman from before and Paladin Danse was there too. He still didn't look happy to see her.

"Elder." Danse said in a gruff voice. Maxson turned his attention to the paladin and Danse pointed towards Tatum. "We're all here." He sounded as if he hated that she was included in their group. The feeling was mutual.

"Good. Brothers! Sisters!" Maxson raised his voice slightly and silenced the group. "You know our mission," Everyone nodded except Tatum who had no clue as to what was happening. "I don't want any heroics." As he said this he looked directly at Paladin Danse. "I am going to accompany you on this mission but do not make any unnecessary actions." Again it seemed he was speaking to Danse. The Paladin glared at Tatum the moment Maxson looked away from him. "Move out."

 _Mission?_ Tatum's mind raced to keep up with the conversation. Everyone made their way to the vertibirds and Tatum followed along. Elder Maxson fell in step with her.

"What's going on?" She looked directly at Maxson. "Where are we going?"

"We have found an old Vault that may have valuable prewar tech. We are going to retrieve it."

"And that includes me?"

"Yes. This mission is part of your new job." He shot her a sideways glance. "I'm sure you can handle it."

His tone didn't sound sarcastic but she knew it was. Whatever they were about to do would be awful. Her stomach knotted up and she felt like vomiting. A strong wind blew the moment they stepped outside and the walkway swayed. Maxson latched on to her upper arm and pulled her, forcing her to advance. Two vertibirds were filled with Brotherhood soldiers and scribes. Maxson pulled Tatum on to the same bird he would be riding. She took a seat and buckled herself in, Maxson sitting beside her did the same.

After a moment the vertibird took flight and they glided through the air. Tatum couldn't stop the terrifying thoughts that kept playing in her head. She needed a distraction.

"Elder Maxson." She said just loud enough for him to hear, but the vertibird drowned the sound out for everyone else. "What are those big metal things?" She pointed to Paladin Danse's metal suit. Maxson leaned in towards her, their heads only inches apart.

"It's called power armor. It was actually around before the bombs fell."

"Really?" She didn't know that. In fact, she was realizing, there was a lot of things she didn't know.

"Yes. The suits were worn by the United States army during the Great War. They help protect against bullets, energy weapons and radiation."

"They're cool." She said and she meant it. Maxson turned his head and looked at her. Their eyes met. Tatum gave up the staring contest first. "So… uh…" She tried to think of a new topic, feeling nervous that he was so close to her. "This mission. Am I going to actually be doing anything?"

"You are going to stay very close to me. Do not leave my side for any reason unless I tell you to. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir." She nodded seriously. The commonwealth was a dangerous place and she didn't really want to be alone. As much as she hated being with the Brotherhood, being alone was worse.

"My men have already scouted out the location, there shouldn't be any real danger. However," He leaned in a little closer and Tatum could feel his breath on the side of her face. "They were unsuccessful at entering the vault. The console on the outside was broken beyond repair. But they did locate a small hole. That's where you come in."

"Me?"

"You will be crawling in to that hole."

"But you just said that I'm supposed to stay by your side." Her palms started to sweat and she felt a chill run through her. "What if there are... _things_ in there!?" She could barely hide the panic in her voice.

"That will be the only time you will leave my side. And if there are enemies inside, we will pull you back through the hole, faster than you can blink. I give you my word that I will protect you."

"Alright." Tatum was sure that Elder Maxson did not give his word lightly. It did make her feel a little better, but the knot in her stomach wasn't going away.

* * *

Tatum spent the rest of the trip in silence. On occasion one of the Brotherhood soldiers would strike up a conversation with another, but nothing of importance was said. When the two birds finally touched down at their location, the soldiers hopped off and started to secure the area. Maxson helped Tatum off the bird and on to the ground. Her head spun and she grabbed on to his forearms with both hands.

"Little dizzy." She said quietly and hoped no one was looking.

"Take deep, slow breaths and keep your head up. Looking at the ground will make it worse." Tatum nodded slightly and raised her head. Their eyes met again, but she didn't look away this time. There was a softness in his eyes that she hadn't seen before.

"Elder." One of the knights called. Maxson nodded to him then looked back at Tatum, she was pale.

"Scribe Haylen." Elder Maxson called to the female scribe that had been present when Tatum's family had been murdered. She came over and immediately took Maxson's place. He gave her a nod before leaving and joining the other members.

"Vertibird Vertigo?" She asked.

"What?" Tatum didn't _love_ the idea that she was now leaning on the scribe instead of Maxson. Especially since she was with the group that killed her family.

"It's pretty common amongst the new recruits. But it does go away. Not for everyone though..." She added thoughtfully. "Some people never get over it. They're the ones that are usually stuck in some research lab or something." Haylen explained happily.

"Why am I really here? Is it punishment?" Tatum asked quietly.

"I'm not sure about punishment, but we need someone small enough to fit through the hole so that we can gain access to the vault." She said as she checked Tatum's eyes.

"I'm alright now." Tatum said as she pushed away from the scribe. Haylen looked like she was about to object but remained silent.

After a few more minutes the group began their journey in to a cave. Paladin Danse and a knight in power armor led the exploration. Soldiers, in similar uniforms to Tatum's, were in two rows behind Danse and the knight. Another two knights in power armor were in the back while the scribes were clustered in the center with Maxson and Tatum in the very middle.

The cave was pitch black, the only lights were from the headlights on the power armor helmets and the occasional glowing fungus. There didn't feel like there was any kind of air flow and the only sounds were the heavy stomps from the metal armor, everyone's breathing, and Tatum's rapid heartbeat. She clutched the suit above her chest and hoped that her heart would slow down. A bead of sweat dripped from her hairline down the side of her face.

Maxson, to the right of Tatum, looked as calm as can be. _Relax. He said they already scoped the area and nothing was here._ She repeated this over and over in her head. _There's nothing here._

After several minutes of walking, nothing had happened. No hidden mole rats, no sneaking raiders, nothing. Finally Tatum's heartbeat started to slow to a normal rhythm. Until they reached the large vault door, then her heart gave an excited leap. She had never been to a vault. The circular mechanism had the numbers: 117 painted on it in yellow. Next to the security door was what looked like a stand for some kind of computer terminal. Except this terminal had been smashed to pieces and the cables cut.

"It's time for you to do your job." Maxson looked at Tatum expectantly. She nodded and tried to swallow the ever-growing lump in her throat. She stepped forward and examined the small hole behind the smashed computer. It did look like she could fit inside, but only barely. "Take this." Maxson held out a modified 9mm pistol that had a light attached to the top. "Be careful with it. We're trusting you."

"And I'm trusting you." She reminded him that he had given his word that she would be safe. He nodded and gave her a gentle push towards the hole. With a deep breath she got to her knees and flicked on the light on top of the pistol.

 _Please nothing jump at me. Please._ She silently begged as she peered inside the hole. She took a couple looks around before crawling inside. She squeezed through the four-foot-long hole and quickly got to her feet.

"Tatum, can you hear me?" Maxson asked from the other side.

"Yes." She answered, her voice trembling.

"What do you see?"

"Um… there's lots of strange computer things."

"Any of them that look like they may be attached to the door?" She looked around and saw one that stood out. It wasn't against the walls like the rest, instead it was out in the middle and facing her and the door.

"Yes, I see one."

"Does it have power?" Maxson was crouched next to the hole, listening intensely. Tatum quietly walked towards the computer. She looked at the screen, it was blank. She pressed a couple buttons but nothing happened.

"No, it's dead!" She yelled towards the hole.

"Damn it." Maxson muttered under his breath. "Can we blow it?" He asked looking at the nearest knight.

"Its four feet of solid concrete…" the knight said as he scratched his head. "I mean, we _could,_ but it would take a while. And probably attract everything in a 50 mile radius." Maxson shook his head.

"Tatum, come back." He called through the hole. He didn't have to tell her twice. Inside the vault was eerily quiet and it wasn't doing her nerves any favors.

She hastily made her way back towards the hole, not paying attention to where she was stepping. The sound of something being crushed echoed through the vault. She looked down at her feet, a large egg shell was splintered and cracked where she had stepped on it.

"Tatum?" Maxson called again.

"There's eggs!" She cried. "There are eggs in here and I just stepped on one!" She stood frozen in place, terror spreading through her body as she looked down at the huge brown egg.

"Tatum! Get out of there, now!" Maxson pounded against the wall. "Hurry!" Everyone looked around at each other, and immediately put up their guard. They didn't know what kind of eggs were in there but they were certain it wasn't a bird's.

The sound of Maxson's voice calling for her, worried, brought her back to her senses. She stepped backwards, away from the eggs. A strong, hot gust of air blew on the top of her head followed by a low growl.

"Tatum!" Maxson yelled again. The giant reptile with horns longer than its head and teeth bigger than Tatum's hand let out a mighty roar. She shrieked and covered her ears, ducking forward to escape the beast. Maxson's heart leapt out of his chest. "Deathclaw…" He barely breathed the word but the entire crew felt the weight of the situation.

"Tatum!" Haylen screamed. "Oh God! Get out of there!" She ran up next to Maxson and pounded the wall.

"Stop!" Maxson grabbed her arms. "Quiet." He held a finger to his lips and lowered himself so he could listen through the hole.

Tatum screamed and fell over as the drooling monster reached for her. She landed on her butt, next to the nest. The Deathclaw froze, not wanting to risk hurting its babies. Tatum and the Deathclaw stared at each other, neither one moving.

 _Please let it end quickly._ She prayed as a second, larger, Deathclaw approached. The two beasts growled to each other before the bigger one turned and stalked to its right. Tatum didn't dare turn her head but she followed it's movements with her eyes. It let out an angry roar before charging at the wall of the cave, all rock, not concrete like the rest of the room. She tried to scream but her voice wouldn't work.

Rocks went flying as the Deathclaw broke through the cave wall. The Brotherhood scrambled to action. Laser shots filled the cave and the field scribes rushed to help those crushed by the rocks. Maxson sprang to his feet and dove between the Deathclaw's legs. In one swift movement he dove, rolled to his feet and sprinted towards Tatum. He breathed a quick sigh of relief to see she was still alive and unharmed.

The Deathclaw that had been watching Tatum growled menacingly at Maxson, daring him to come any closer. The young Elder took a deep breath, he had done this before. With a mighty roar from both Maxson and the Deathclaw, the two charged each other.

The Deathclaw ran forward until it was only a couple feet away from its target. It pounced with both arms spread wide. Maxson seemed to be expecting the attack because he knew exactly how to dodge it. With a quick spin he avoided the enormous claws and maneuvered out of the creature's path. Maxson didn't stop moving for even a second. He bolted towards Tatum and pulled her roughly to her feet.

"Get out of here!" He shoved her hard and she stumbled towards the hole that she had used to get in to the vault. She dropped to her knees and frantically crawled through but stopped when her head hit a rock that was blocking her escape. She cursed and rubbed her head, she didn't feel any blood.

Unsure of what to do, Tatum laid on her stomach and massaged her aching head. She could hear the screams and cries of the Brotherhood, she could hear the Deathclaws and their ground shaking roars, but she could not hear Elder Maxson. She tried to focus her hearing on the Deathclaw that was behind her. It still sounded angry, which had to be a good sign that Maxson was still alive.

"Damn it!" She kicked her legs in frustration. _What should I do? Should I just wait? But what if it collapses?_ She grit her teeth and pushed herself back through the hole, feet first. She sat on her knees and looked over her shoulder at Maxson. The look in his eyes was terrifying, his concentration was unshakeable. His normally slicked back hair was hanging in all directions as he held his ground, shooting at the overgrown reptile with a laser pistol. The light on the gun that he had given her was still on and shining towards the middle of the room. A thick red, almost black, puddle covered the floor around Maxson and the monster.

 _He's hurt._ It felt like a bucket of ice was poured on Tatum's head as more blood leaked from Maxson's body as he fought against the beast. _He's going to die._ Tears welled up in her eyes as she watched the man who had risked his life to save her get thrown across the room by a powerful backhanded smack.

"No!" She screamed when his body hit the wall and landed on the ground, unmoving. Her sudden outburst caught the Deathclaw's attention. It looked towards Tatum once before looking back to see that Maxson wasn't going to attack anymore. Maxson didn't move and the Deathclaw approached Tatum as she screamed and tried her best to run from it but she barely even get to her feet before the beast was upon her. She closed her eyes tight and pressed her back against the wall.

She felt a large mass against her body, hitting her hard enough to knock the wind out of her. A guttural cry escaped Maxson's mouth as the Deathclaw's tooth embedded itself in his arm, just below the elbow. Tatum's eyes snapped open and she grabbed on to Maxson's body as he pulled his arm, Deathclaw tooth and all, out of the beast's mouth. In his hand was a blood covered army knife that had just been shoved through the monster's brain. The Deathclaw's eyes rolled up in to its head just before one last hot breath escaped the creature's mouth. It collapsed in front of them and Maxson did the same. Tatum held on to him with all her strength as all of his strength left him. The two of them slowly fell to the hard floor.

"Please don't die!" She sobbed, tears falling on Maxson's face, where she cradled him in her lap.

"I'm fine." He told her but his voice was weak and his face was pale.

"Help!" She screamed between sobs. "Elder Maxson is hurt! Help! Please!" She clung to him and wiped his hair out of his eyes. "You can't die."

"I won't." He promised with a cough. He licked his dry lips and they turned a bright red.

"You're all I have left." The words spilled from her mouth as she shook her head defiantly. "You can't die." Maxson looked up at the girl that was holding him like the world would end if she let go. Her hazel eyes were bloodshot from crying and speckles of his blood were decorating her face. The only warmth he felt was not from his own body, but from hers.

"I…" He swallowed hard, determined to get the words out. "-Kept my promise." He had sworn to protect her and that's exactly what he did. His hand fell off of his stomach where he had been applying pressure to his wounds. Tatum watched in horror as it hit the ground with a deafening _thump._ His eyes were locked on to Tatum's face, until they closed and his world went black.

"Help!" She screamed again. "No. No!" She leaned forward and embraced Maxson's body as Scribe Haylen sprinted over.

"Get off of him!" She commanded but Tatum couldn't hear her. After all the fighting Maxson and Tatum did, none of it mattered. He had still sacrificed himself to save her. Haylen roughly shoved Tatum's shoulder. "Get off!"

"He's dead." Tatum sat up straight, feeling hollow. "He's dead."

Scribe Haylen pressed her fingers against his throat. "No. No he isn't!" The look on her face mirrored the joy that was in Tatum's heart. Haylen got to work immediately, throwing her medic bag to the ground and unzipping it as quickly as possible.

"What…" Tatum took a breath, steadying her nerves. "I want to help. What can I do?" She blinked the tears from her eyes.

"Here," Haylen handed her some scissors. "Cut the front of his uniform, I need to get to his wounds." Tatum didn't even think, she just cut. Grabbing the bloody material she slid the scissors through it with ease. Haylen pulled three stimpaks from her bag. She inserted them near his wounds. Four gaping holes went across his chest and abdomen.

"Oh my god…" Tatum held her breath, feeling queasy from all the blood.

"He's not gonna make it…" Haylen bit back the sob that threatened to escape. "No." She shook herself. "I just need to close these wounds. Fast." She looked at Tatum with determination. "I'll need your help."

Tatum swallowed and nodded firmly. She _would_ save him, if it was the last thing she did.

The two women rushed to sanitize and close all of Maxson's wounds. They worked well together, Tatum listening to every word Haylen said, but it wasn't enough. He had lost a lot of blood and desperately needed a transfusion. They did what they could to keep him from bleeding anymore and had the team get him back to the vertibird.

The ride back to the Prydwen felt like an eternity as Tatum watched Haylen and a couple other scribes tending to Maxson. He was unconscious for the entire ride, pale faced and bloody lipped. When they docked back at the Prydwen several medics were already waiting, including Cade. Everything happened very quickly once they landed. Maxson was rushed away and when Tatum tried to follow, Paladin Danse blocked her path and glared at her.

"Let them work. You're the reason he's in this condition." His deep voice shook Tatum to her very core. But if she was good at one thing, and one thing alone, it was standing up for herself.

"I never asked to go on this crazy mission! Besides, isn't _your_ job to protect him? I'm just a civilian." Danse's expression went from murderous to genocidal. He knew she had a point.

"If you had never come here—"

"And you think that was my choice?!" Tatum wanted to punch him in the face. "It's not like _I_ wanted to be here. Your leader forced me to." She wanted to say: _He brought this on himself._ But something deep inside stopped her.

"He was just trying to make up for the mistake that some of his men made. That's what a great leader does!"

"I never said he was a bad leader." Tatum amended, still yelling. "I'm just saying that this was his choice, not mine." She ducked past Danse and ran as fast as she could back to her bed. He didn't chase after her.

She leapt in to bed and hugged her legs tightly. _Please be ok._ She sobbed with her head on her knees. _Please don't die._


	4. Chapter 4

Two days had gone by since the mission. Tatum had started her job as the mole rat caretaker. She'd wake up early and feed them, chopping up vegetables or bugs and putting it in a dogfood bowl for them. Then half way through her day she would use the handle of a broom to encourage the mole rats in to a smaller, holding cage while she cleaned the large cage. Several hours after that, she gave them their last feeding. The first day she cleaned their cage she wanted to vomit. There wasn't anything that smelled worse than mole rat droppings. The second day was only a little better, she had found a bandana with a monkey in a space suit on it that one of the young squires had dropped. She tied it around her nose and mouth, it only blocked out the smell a tiny bit but it made her feel better that she had some kind of filter.

As she walked through the ship no one spoke to her. The only looks she received were ones of disappointment or anger. Even Senior Scribe Neriah seemed colder. Tatum had to keep telling herself that none of this was her fault, if she didn't she knew she'd go mad. The Mess Officer stilled seemed friendly enough, although it was different than before. The only person that didn't seem to feel any kind of resentment towards her was Scribe Haylen. She had found Tatum and told her that Maxson was going to be OK. The look in her eyes was a mixture of relief and pity towards Tatum. But Tatum didn't need her pity, she would be fine. At least, that's what she told herself.

Tatum had just finished with the last feeding of the day and retired to her bed, where she spent the majority of her days. A man stood at the foot of her bed, he was wearing the Brotherhood Scribe uniform. Tatum approached cautiously.

"Hello." She said, catching the man's attention.

"You are to report to medical immediately. Elder Maxson would have a word with you." He delivered his message and left. _Elder Maxson wants to talk to me?_ She felt like butterflies had taken up residence in her stomach. _Is he mad at me?_ She wondered as she headed to the medical room.

She turned the corner and stood in the entrance way of the medical room. Elder Maxson was on the bed, it was tilted up so that he was in a relaxed sitting position. He was still really pale, but definitely better than the last time he saw her.

"You have your orders." He said to an initiate that was standing a few feet from him. The initiate saluted him and quickly left the room, giving Tatum a bad look on the way out. She ignored it.

"Elder Maxson?" She approached him slowly. "You're still working?" She asked amazed.

"Of course. Wounded or not I am still the Elder of this ship." His voice was soft and he looked exhausted. "How are you feeling?" He asked her and Tatum's eyes widened in surprise.

"You're asking me how _I_ feel?" She questioned.

"Yes. I did kind of body slam you." The corner of his mouth raised in an apologetic smirk.

"I'm fine." She replied hastily, coming closer to him. "How are you?"

"I'll live." He told her.

"Good." She looked at her feet. "If you died…" A mix of emotions swirled around her head.

"What? Would you miss me?" He teased causing Tatum to look at him in surprise.

She made an indignant sound. "No." She answered with more attitude than she had intended. "It's just if you died, everyone here would be after my head. They all think it's my fault that you got hurt." She blurted out an excuse, trying to hide the strange feelings that longed to show themselves.

"I'm sorry." He apologized, surprising her once again.

"For what?"

"For putting you in that situation. I admit that one of the reasons I had brought you along was to prove that the commonwealth isn't safe and that you need our protection. If I had known there were Deathclaws however, I would have never let you go. And I'm also sorry that everyone is most likely giving you the cold shoulder. It's only out of respect for me. They don't mean it."

"Paladin Danse does. He hates me." She pouted and Maxson chuckled before grimacing and clutching his stomach with his uninjured arm. He took slow, deep breaths.

"Yes well, Danse has always been one of the most loyal members of the Brotherhood." He swallowed hard before continuing. "He has a difficult time relating to anyone that's not Brotherhood."

"Maybe you…" Tatum's brow furrowed in concern. "Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I'm fine." He said with as much conviction as he could. "Now." He tried to adjust his position slightly but gave up when his movements tugged on the IV that was attached to his arm. "The reason I called you here was to offer you a position."

"A position?"

"Yes. I've already spoken with Knight Captain Cade." He nodded his head in Cade's direction, Tatum hadn't noticed him standing there. Cade gave Tatum a small smile. "Scribe Haylen told me that you assisted her in treating my wounds." Tatum nodded. "She said she was very impressed with you. That you, even though you were crying, listened and followed her every order." Tatum blushed, annoyed that Haylen had told him she cried the whole time. "That is why we decided that you will study medicine and become Cade's apprentice."

Tatum snapped her head in Knight Captain Cade's direction and he smiled at her. "But... I…" Tatum couldn't get the words out.

"Welcome to the Brotherhood, initiate." Maxson had just assigned her a rank within the Brotherhood and she didn't know what to say. On one hand she was angry that once again he had just assumed that this was what she wanted. But on the other hand, _he was right_. "You will report to Knight Captain Cade first thing tomorrow morning to begin your training." She nodded feeling overwhelmed and numb. "Lucky for you, I'll be your first patient."

She stared at Elder Maxson with an expression similar to a fish out of water. Her eyes open wide and her mouth rapidly opening and closing as she kept trying to say _something_ but couldn't get the words to come out.

"You'll start at 0700. Come in your uniform and be prepared to work." Cade was talking to her now and she focused her attention on him. "Do whatever you have to before you get here to wake yourself up. I don't want any slacking off." His words were firm but had a gentleness behind them. She nodded to show that she understood and would do what she could to come prepared for duty. Cade nodded back to her, letting her know that he was done speaking with her. She looked back at Maxson.

"Cade will let Neriah know that you won't be reporting to her for duty anymore." He told Tatum. "Do you have any questions?"

"Yes." She answered immediately, not even thinking. "I uh…" She had to take a deep breath to slow her brain down so that she could think properly. "I guess it's not a question, but I just wanted to say thank you." She bowed her head in embarrassment and gratitude. "You saved my life."

"I will always protect my own." His fingers lightly brushed the top of her hand as he reached out to her. Her eyes met his and she felt the tears stinging, eager to be let out. She dropped her gaze, thanked him and ran off quickly so he wouldn't see her cry again.

 _Why does everything he say make me cry?_ She wiped the tears away as she climbed the stairs to her bed. _He's so stupid._ She decided to get angry instead of acknowledging the fact that he genuinely cared for her well-being. _Stupid Elder, stupid Brotherhood, and stupid ship!_ She felt frustrated and confused. _Why does he have to be like that?_ His rapidly shifting attitude made her head spin. Some days she was truly afraid that he would hurt her, then others he was literally saving her life.

She laid down on her bed and stared at the curved ceiling. Her life had taken a strange turn and she suddenly didn't feel like fighting it anymore. _Can I really do this? Be part of the Brotherhood of Steel? They killed my family. Rachelle and Derrell are dead because of these people and now I'm just supposed to become one of them?_ Her heart felt heavy because she longed for her family but also felt a small desire to stay at Maxson's side. She let out a heavy sigh and rolled over on to her stomach, she pushed her shoes off with her feet and buried her face in her pillow.

Thinking about everything was too exhausting and all she wanted to do was drift off to sleep and not have to think about anything anymore. She grabbed her new alarm clock and set it before pulling the sheet over herself and getting comfortable.

* * *

She couldn't see anything but she could feel the warmth of someone next to her. Gently she reached her hand out, seeking her companion. Strong fingers wrapped around her hand. Tatum knew before looking that it was Maxson. Their hands glowed with a greenish tint, like a computer terminal was shining on them. The large hand holding her hand was covered in a leather glove that had the fingers cut out. Her gaze followed the hand up to the arm, which was wearing a brown coat.

She tried to look him in the face but it was shrouded in darkness. He gently tugged on her hand and they continued walking along their dark path. The darkness around the pair felt cold and distant, but Maxson felt warm and present. Tatum gently squeezed his hand, feeling that everything would be alright as long as he stayed by her side.

They walked for what felt like an eternity, neither one speaking. Several times Tatum tried to look at his face, to see his expression. But the darkness shrouded it. She wondered if her face was concealed as well. Her hand released Maxson's and they both stopped walking. She reached up to touch her face. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She let her hands drop to the side and searched for Maxson's hand. She groped the air, not finding him. The warmth from his body was now gone, he had left her.

She called out his name but he didn't reply. A sense of dread filled her up and she ran through the darkness in search of her lost companion. It didn't matter which way she turned or how fast she ran, in this darkness she couldn't tell if she had gone anywhere at all. She begged and pleaded with the darkness.

"Please. Please bring him back!" Her voice echoed as though she was in a cave. She stood, frozen to the spot, afraid to advance. Suddenly she could feel warmth again, approaching her right side. She smiled to herself. Maxson's hand found her own and their fingers intertwined. She didn't look at her companion because she knew she wouldn't be able to see him anyway.

His hand was warm and inviting, but steadily got hotter and hotter until it felt like a nuke had detonated in her palm. Her hand quickly pulled out of his as she turned towards him. When she faced Maxson the room lit up, she was back inside the vault and a blood soaked Maxson smiled at her before the Deathclaw's jaws clamped closed over his head.

"Maxson!" Tatum screamed as she sat upright in bed. Her whole body shook as she slowly came to her senses. The women around her glared at her from their beds, angry to be woken. She bolted out of bed and ran through the ship towards the medical room, she had to make sure he was alright.

The late night crew watched her as she sprinted past them, unsure of what to make of the girl who was running around at 3 AM. When she arrived at medical her heart leapt out of her chest in relief. There, still hooked up to IV's and a heart monitor, was Elder Maxson. He blinked his eyes a couple times, trying to wake up.

The relief Tatum felt bubbled out of her as she covered her face and cried. A scribe was sitting in Knight Captain Cade's chair at his desk. He looked up from the computer and at the sobbing girl.

"What happened?" He asked getting to his feet and hurrying over to her. "Are you hurt? Sick?" He offered suggestions but Tatum just shook her head.

"Crying again?" Maxson's voice was raspy from sleep. Tatum wanted to tell him to shut up but her body propelled her forward. Before she realized what was happening she found herself clinging to his body in an embrace. Maxson and the scribe both looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "Give us a moment." Maxson told the scribe who saluted and left.

"I'm sorry." Tatum said through her tears. "I didn't mean to wake you up… I just had a bad dream."

"You have those often, don't you?" His voice was soft. She nodded her head, still resting on his chest. She was pressed against his wounds but he didn't have the heart to push her away. "Tell me about it."

"Really?" She sniffled and raised herself. "Um…" She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and took a deep, shaky breath. "You died." Her face was already red from crying but it grew a couple shades darker when she spoke. "We were in the vault and the Deathclaw killed you. He ate you."

"Well," Maxson gently pushed himself up to readjust his position. "As you can see, I'm still alive." She nodded and wiped her face again. She felt foolish for running to him like a small child would their parents.

"I'm sorry." She said again.

"It's alright." He spoke kindly. "That was your first time seeing a Deathclaw?"

"Yes." She answered in a small voice.

"I had nightmares too when I saw my first Deathclaw." He admitted.

" _You_ did?" Tatum was surprised. "I didn't think anything scared you. The way you went after it, it was like you had no fear at all."

"I've fought them before. Lots of times actually." He pointed to the desk chair and Tatum went and got it, bringing it over to the bed. She sat and looked up at Maxson. "The first time I had seen a Deathclaw was when I was nine, almost ten years old. I had just recently joined the Brotherhood and an injured one stumbled in to our base. It was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. I had heard about them before, of course, but _seeing_ one was completely different."

"Yeah." Tatum agreed. She had heard about them too, but had never seen one until recently.

"Even though it was injured it was still a formidable foe and we were unprepared. The Brotherhood in the Capital Wasteland was still trying to get their base together and we didn't have many defenses up. Several initiates were out in the courtyard training, a lot of them were seriously wounded when it attacked." He cleared his throat. "The damn thing had scaled a wall and dropped in on us. Scared the hell out of me."

Tatum watched silently as Maxson recalled his past. He looked so different now than he had when she first met him. He looked almost… fragile.

"It was lucky that he showed up." Maxson spoke again with a little smile. "Everyone called him the Lone Wanderer. He showed up with a flaming sword and attacked the Deathclaw like it was just a mole rat. I had never seen someone so brave." He exhaled a small laugh. "Brave but also kind of strange."

"Really?"

"Yeah… he uh…" Maxson tried to gather his thoughts. "He didn't talk much, and he always wore these biker goggles. He was really pale and never showed his skin. The only part of him I could see was his face, but the goggles hid most of it. If he passed me on the street without all that, I wouldn't be able to recognize him."

"But he killed the Deathclaw all by himself?" Tatum asked, getting the story back on track.

"Yes, he did. Knights offered to help but he held up a hand and said: "I got it."" Maxson smirked at the thought. "I kind of idolized him after that. It really seemed that he was truly unafraid. Never once did I see him fearful. And the way he killed that Deathclaw, it was awe-inspiring. I started to study them the best I could, learning their weaknesses."

"So that you could kill one like he did." Tatum said to show that she was following along.

"Yes. Their skin is tough, hard to penetrate, but their mouths and eyes are vulnerable." He unconsciously rubbed his arm where the tooth had impaled him. "That's why, unless you have the ammo to spare, it's best to go for the inside of its mouth. If you can sever the spine or damage the brain, you can kill it easily." Tatum grimaced at the graphic description.

"Should I come back later?" The scribe had returned with a bottle of purified water in his hand.

"No, we're done." Maxson said as he looked at Tatum. She nodded her head and stood up, letting the scribe take the chair back to the desk.

"Goodnight Elder Maxson." She said pleasantly, feeling much better than when she had first arrived.

"Goodnight, Initiate." He replied and she left the medical room.

* * *

Her alarm clock went off and she clicked the button to shut it up. She groaned as she sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Tatum felt exhausted. A couple hours had gone by since she talked with Elder Maxson, but she felt like it was only minutes ago that she had laid back down to sleep. _Nuka Cola._ She thought as she forced herself out of bed. Knight Captain Cade told her to come fully awake, she needed a pick-me-up.

After drinking a whole bottle of Nuka Cola and eating some sweet Fancy Lad Snack Cakes she was feeling much better. Using a spoon as a mirror she looked herself over, her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and she didn't have any food pieces stuck to her face or teeth. _It's now or never._ She said to herself as she put the spoon down on the table.

When she arrived at the medical room, right on time, Cade was switching Maxson's IV bags. He noticed her and stopped.

"Good, you're here. Come and switch these." He showed her how to unattach the bag from the line and put a new one in its place. Her first task wasn't very hard and she was starting to feel good about her new job. "Now we'll need to check what that blood is from." He looked down at Maxson's wrapped chest where a bit of blood had soaked through the bandages. He carefully cut the soiled bandages and threw them away while Tatum watched closely.

"He tore a stitch?" Tatum asked and Cade nodded in agreement.

"I'll have to fix that. Pay close attention to what I do." He threaded the needle after soaking it in some kind of disinfectant, then he swabbed the bloody area where the stitches had been torn. Tatum held her breath as he plunged the needle in to Maxson chest. Her eyes shot up to look at his face. Maxson looked relaxed for the most part, only a small twitch showed that he felt anything. She regretfully looked back at Cade's hands as they sewed. It was one of the grossest things she had ever seen, but it wasn't the first time.

She had watched Scribe Haylen stitch him up in the vault. She had also had stitches herself when she was younger. They hurt going in and itched like crazy afterwards. _Maybe he scratched them?_ She thought as Cade finished up. He tied the last stitch by looping the thread through itself and pulling it tight. Then he cut it short and went to clean everything up, starting with Maxson's chest. He handed Tatum a cotton ball with disinfectant on it.

"Wipe all around the area and make sure to get all the blood. I'll be right back." He left to wash his hands and Tatum stared at Maxson's chest, terrified of hurting him.

"What's the matter?" He asked her and she flinched, startled.

"I just don't want to hurt you."

"After what Cade just did, you couldn't possibly do any more damage." He said to reassure her, but she knew that wasn't true. She could accidently pull out one of his stitches or press too hard or… _Just do it!_ She scolded herself and touched the cotton ball to his chest. She carefully rubbed, making sure to watch as his chest rose and fell steadily with each breath. She would stop if he showed any sign of discomfort.

By the time Cade returned she was finished cleaning the blood off. He praised her work and showed her how to properly bandage someone. He taught her about how tight the bandage should be and what direction to wrap in. She silently took everything in as he spoke to her. By the time Maxson had been re-stitched, cleaned, and rewrapped, she was feeling really good about her new job. Until she heard a deep voice behind her.

"What is she doing here?" Paladin Danse had just entered the medical room and was scowling at Tatum. Her mood dropped several levels.

"She is my new apprentice." Knight Captain Cade said brightly. Danse looked to Maxson bewildered. He nodded to show that it was the truth.

" _Her?_ And you're letting her work on the Elder?" He was floored by what he was hearing.

"Yes, and she's doing very well." Cade shot her a smile and she smiled back. Cade, she liked. Danse glared at her.

"That's enough Paladin." Maxson's voice was commanding as he locked eyes with Danse. "If you've come here for a reason, speak."

"Yes sir." He said with a frown. "We are holding a small memorial for the fallen. I thought I would inform you. Lancer Captain Kells set it up."

"Thank you." Maxson said and dismissed Danse. He beckoned Cade over. "Unhook me. I'm going to attend."

"But, sir…" Cade shook his head. "You should rest."

"I'm not going to fight the institute, I'm just attending a memorial." He looked Cade in the eyes and the two held each other's gaze. Finally Cade relented and called Tatum over. He showed her how to shut off the IV drip and remove the needle from Maxson's arm. At the sight of the needle being pulled from him, she felt dizzy. Maxson noticed and reached for her arm. He grabbed hold of her, trying to steady her.

"I'm OK." She said as she gently placed a hand on his. "Thanks."

"Still not one for needles, huh?" Cade said with a half-smile. "We'll work on that." Tatum nodded, she really did want to continue being his apprentice. It sure beat being the mole rat girl.

The doctor helped Maxson off the bed. "Tatum." Maxson was pale as he stood, holding the bed and Knight Captain Cade for support. "Go to my room and get me a new uniform. It will be in the top drawer of the dresser at the end of my bed." He instructed and Tatum nodded before leaving.

She walked through the ship to Maxson's personal quarters. The room looked just like it had the first time she was in here. The uniform was exactly where he had said it was, she grabbed it and made her way back to the medical room.

Maxson was completely naked except for his boxers and Tatum covered her eyes quickly as she turned her back to him. Cade chuckled and took the uniform from her.

"Naked men is something you're going to have to get used to if you want to be a medic." Cade teased. Tatum couldn't say anything, her face was redder than a tato. Maxson had an excellent body, heavy but muscular, and covered in scars. She had seen her father without a shirt, and several raiders, but none of them looked like Maxson. She felt the heat rising in her face as she saw the mental image of him.

 _He wasn't wearing a shirt when he got stitches…_ She tried to tell herself to stop the flames from igniting in her stomach. But this was different, he had pants on before. Her breathing was heavy and she tried to calm her heart. _What is happening to me?_ She wondered as the butterflies danced with the flames in her stomach.

Maxson, with assistance from Cade, put on his uniform and ran his hand through his hair to push it back in place. He sat on the edge of the bed and slipped his feet in to his boots. His coat, which had been washed, was folded on a shelf under the bed. He carefully bent over to get it and slipped it on. Feeling more like himself than he had in the past couple days, he took a deep breath and walked over to Tatum.

"Initiate." He said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. A small squeak escaped her lips and Maxson smirked. "Come. We have a memorial to attend." The three of them left the medical room and went to the meeting room where several other members were gathered. Maxson left Tatum in the back of the crowd as he made his way forward. Cade stayed with Tatum.

Maxson reached the front of the assembly and stood next to Lancer Captain Kells and Paladin Danse. They both looked surprised to see him. He held out his hand and Kells dropped the holotags of the fallen in to it. Maxson read the names, his brow furrowed. He felt every single death that came to his ship.

The room had fallen silent, all eyes on their Elder. He stepped forward.

"Brothers and sisters." He began. "We have gathered to remember our fallen comrades." Tatum heard a sniffle and saw two women holding each other, one crying and the other comforting. Maxson gave a speech about losing family, because that's what the Brotherhood was. Despite his injuries he stood tall and strong, remembering the fallen that had died when the Deathclaws attacked.

His words were spoken loudly and clearly. Each one resonating inside of Tatum. It was as if a new light had been shown on the Brotherhood. She could see that everyone in the room had felt the loss, like it really had been their siblings that died. As his speech ended, everyone in the room snapped to attention and saluted him. He saluted back, meeting all their eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** Spoilers ahead!

* * *

After the memorial service Maxson didn't return to the medical room. He had decided to resume his normal responsibilities. Knight Captain Cade disagreed with his choice, and told Tatum so. However, Cade let it slide, he knew that if things got worse Maxson would come to him.

A week passed since that day and Cade kept Tatum very busy as his apprentice. On their downtime he had her reading medical journals and practicing different techniques. Every night when she returned from her 12 hour shifts with Cade, she would collapse into bed. Her body ached and her brain hurt too; there was so much to learn and process that she often felt like quitting. However, being a medic-in-training did leave her with a sense of accomplishment when her head hit the pillow. She felt like she was actually doing something useful.

Even the other members of the Brotherhood had seemed to forget how angry they were at her and started to acknowledge that she was one of the family now. _Family._ The word still felt strange to her. How could she ever truly forgive them for killing her family? Yes, it was an accident, she would tell herself, but a nagging feeling deep inside her wouldn't let her forgive them, even if it was an accident.

Tatum also felt like no one discussed the important things around her. Such as where they were heading next or who they were killing. She heard the words: _the Institute_ , several times but she didn't know what it was. She knew it had something to do with the robotic men that were in Senior Scribe Neriah's lab, but other than that, nothing. She wanted to speak to Elder Maxson several times throughout the week but whenever she sought him out he was always busy. She would retreat, defeated, back to the medical room.

In the past week she had also been given free reign of the ship and the use of the vertibirds to fly down to the airport for a bathroom break. She learned that the Brotherhood had a schedule. Every so often a group would board the vertibirds and fly down for the restrooms. When Cade gave her a break the two of them would go to the airport together, then when they returned they would either grab some food from the mess hall or jump back in to work.

Knight Captain Cade held the same beliefs as the rest of the Brotherhood, something that Tatum was slowly coming to terms with. He believed that humans were the only race that deserved to strive, but only to a certain point. Technology was a dangerous thing, as the Great War had proven, and needed to be safeguarded from the general public.

Tatum had overheard Paladin Danse speaking to a Knight he was sponsoring, he had told her that the Brotherhood commandeered technology from the commonwealth, and all over the US, so that people couldn't misuse it again. He had said that the US Government had pushed technology past their own limits and that's what led to their destruction. Tatum didn't know if she agreed with him but she hadn't seen much of the world to completely disagree either.

After all the wounds she had seen in just one week, she knew the world was a terrifyingly horrible place. Raiders, feral ghouls, supermutants, Deathclaws, Mirelurks, and mole rats. There were, of course, more awful things out there and the Brotherhood was the commonwealth's only real defense against them. It made her happy to be a part of such an extraordinary group, but the bad dreams she had nightly reminded her of her family.

She worried, as she laid down for bed, that she would be haunted by another nightmare. They were relentless, every time she closed her eyes, another horrifying dream seeped in to her head. Sometimes she dreamed of her father, others it was Derrell and Rachelle. Recently though, it had always been about Elder Maxson.

* * *

Arthur Maxson closed the door to his private quarters. He didn't know the exact time, just that it was after 2200 hours. He rolled his neck around his shoulders and removed his coat. The last several days had been exhausting. Paladin Danse's new Knight was a remarkable woman; he knew that if she was on the mission, it would be a success. However, there was talk that her loyalty wasn't genuine. Maxson had a full time job trying to quiet the rumors. That, on top of all the other duties he was responsible for.

The Institute was still a threat that loomed over the Commonwealth. Maxson knew it was the Brotherhood's duty to free the people from this threat, but with what little information they had on them, it was proving to be difficult. Other, smaller problems had arisen, supplies had gone missing from the logistics division, several crates worth. He would need someone to look in to that as soon as possible. Also, there was a group rising up that called themselves the Minutemen. Their general had an impressive suit of power armor. That was another issue that would need investigating.

Maxson poured himself a shot of whiskey and drank it all in one go. He sighed as the liquid burned down his throat. It was his first drink since coming to the Commonwealth. He filled another cup and poured that one down his throat too. He set the shot glass upside, on top of the whiskey bottle so that the cup covered the lid.

A long sigh escaped his lips as he unclipped all the belts and buckles on his uniform. He lazily pulled it off of his body, looking down at his Deathclaw scratches. They were healing well, thanks to the stimpaks he injected in to himself every night. The stim would send a rush of numbing through his torso, and numb was exactly what he needed every now and then.

It wasn't easy being 20 years old and commanding the Brotherhood of Steel. A lot of the men and women he commanded were older than him. It was a strange feeling, having his elders looking to him for direction and calling him "elder".

He pulled a pair of pajama pants from the middle drawer of the dresser at the foot of his bed. He slid them on and sat at the edge of his bed, looking at the bottle of whiskey. _Maybe one more._ He thought as he stood back up. He stopped in his tracks as a quiet knocking pounded on his door. _Great._ He sighed and answered, pulling the door open. Tatum stood there, her eyes puffy from crying and her hair a mess. She was looking at the ground.

"I…" She started but stopped. Maxson looked through the door to see if anyone was around, thankfully they weren't. Without waiting for her to finish what she had come to tell him, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her in to his room. When he touched her she finally looked up and noticed that he was only wearing pants. Her face flushed and she hid her embarrassment in her hands. He closed the door behind them and walked over to the table, grabbing the shot glass off the bottle.

He poured the amber liquid into the cup and held it out to her. "Here." She peeked through her fingers at him. "You look like you could use a drink." She slowly uncovered her face and took the glass gingerly.

"I've never had alcohol before." She said as she stared in to the cup. Maxson smiled but quickly tried to hide it. He spun on his heel and went to get another cup from his desk.

"Try it." He encouraged, eagerly awaiting her reaction. She looked at the little cup in her hand and gave it a sniff.

"Oh my god!" She exclaimed. Maxson smirked and threw back his freshly poured cup of whiskey. He exhaled contently like it was a refreshing ice cold Nuka Cola. Tatum frowned but put the cup to her lips, taking a tiny sip. As soon as the fiery liquid touched her throat she held out the cup like it had just bitten her. "Oh no." She shook her head with a disgusted face. "No, thank you."

Maxson chuckled as he grabbed the cup from her hand and finished her drink. The liquid pooled in his belly like a warm campfire. He could feel the heat spreading to his face and decided that he shouldn't have any more tonight.

"Did you need something?" He asked as he set the glass on the table. "You looked upset."

"I had another bad dream." She looked at her feet, not ready to look him in the eyes. Her thick wavy hair shielding her face from his view. Maxson reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, she lifted her head and looked at him with a surprised expression.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" He asked and she nodded. He knew that it would be more proper to sit at the table with her, but he had had a long day and the bed was slightly more comfortable. Slightly. "Sit down." He said as he gently led her to the bed. He sat on the edge and she followed his example.

"Um…" She said looking at her hands as she rubbed them together nervously. "You died, again." She didn't look at him as she spoke, uncomfortable being so close to him. "This time we were on a vertibird and it malfunctioned. There was only one parachute and you gave it to me. I had to watch as you crashed and burned."

"Easy, you won't have to ever worry about that happening." He said as upbeat as he could. She looked at him and waited for an explanation. "We don't have parachutes. You and I would burn together." He smiled at her cheerfully, _maybe_ feeling the effects of the alcohol. Tatum couldn't help but laugh as he spoke so happily. It was nice to see him smile, he didn't do it often.

"Well, good." She said. "Because I'd rather die with someone than live alone." She had meant to say it jokingly but it came out completely serious. She watched as Maxson's face fell in to a melancholy expression.

"Me too." He said as he gently caressed her cheek. "You said that I don't seem like I'm afraid of anything, but that's not true." He confided as she swallowed, feeling the butterflies flapping around in her stomach. "I'm afraid of a lot of things: failing, dying…" He looked in to her hazel eyes, "rejection." Their lips met delicately, neither one used to kissing.

Maxson carefully stroked her cheek with his thumb as his other hand tangled in her hair. He ran his tongue over her lips and she opened her mouth to let him in. Her hands glided over his bare chest, careful not to touch his wounds. He was warm to the touch and his mouth tasted like whiskey. _Is he only kissing me because he's drunk?_ Tatum hesitated in her movements and Maxson stopped as well. He looked at her concerned.

"I'm sorry… I'm just not ready." She said, knowing that he had just told her he was afraid of rejection.

"It's alright." He didn't look upset. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No!" Tatum put her hands up and waved them from side to side. "I liked it. I… like you." She blushed a deep red and Maxson smiled.

"Good. But, slower?" He asked and she nodded her head. "Alright."

"Um…" Her cheeks turning even deeper red, "I know this is forward but… And I don't mean anything by it." She hesitated and Maxson waited patiently. "I don't want to sleep alone." She snuck a quick glance at his face. It took him a moment to understand what she was asking.

"Yes." He answered, his brain going foggy from the alcohol. "You can stay with me tonight." She blushed even darker, tears brimming her eyes. "If that's what you want." He added quickly, worried that he had completely read her wrong. She blinked several times and bowed her head with a nod.

"Thanks." She said as she crawled into bed behind him. "Do you have a favorite side?" She asked, still embarrassed. He swallowed hard, he had never had a woman in his bed before.

"Not really." He answered quickly, his nerves getting the better of him. "I'll get an extra pillow." He got off the bed and walked across his room to the tall dresser where he opened a drawer and pulled out a fluffy white pillow. He handed it to her and she gently took it from him.

She placed the pillow under her head and made herself comfortable, laying on her side, facing Maxson's side of the bed. _Does she want to cuddle?_ Maxson thought panicked. His wounds were healing well enough that it probably wouldn't bother him if she touched them. He was more concerned about the growing bulge in his pants. He didn't want to scare her away with _that,_ but if he turned his back to her, it might seem like he was ignoring her.

"I can leave…" Tatum said looking up at Maxson who was still standing by the bed.

"No, I was just making sure you were comfortable. I'll get the lights." He spoke with a clear voice even though he was crumbling on the inside, Deathclaws were no problem, but a girl...

She nodded her head and he turned to click the lights off. He carefully walked back to her and got in beside her, sharing the sheet. He laid on his back, hoping she wouldn't notice anything. She breathed a content sigh on his shoulder.

"Good night." She said, entwining her fingers with his. He held her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Good night." He whispered back.

* * *

In the morning, both Maxson and Tatum were woken up by the ringing of his alarm clock. He reached over and shut it off. Tatum snuggled up to his arm, her body warm and soft.

"Morning already?" She asked sleepily. Maxson watched her pleasant expression, her eyes still closed.

"Unfortunately so." He told her as he gently used his free hand to caress her face. "But you still have an hour before you are needed for duty." She smiled and wiggled up closer to him.

"You're the boss, don't you make the rules? Can't you stay a little longer?" She asked finally opening her eyes to meet his gaze. He smirked and shook his head.

"I have a lot to do." He gently pried his arm free and sat up, stretching.

"Then I'll get up too." She said and mirrored his stretch. He chuckled and pat her on the head. She rewarded him with an adorable giggle. He liked seeing her like this, warm and happy, freshly woken up.

"I have to get dressed." He hinted and she stared at him blankly. "You can stay if you want…" He offered while untying the pull strings on his pajamas. He knew she wouldn't take him up on that offer.

"Oh!" She bolted out of bed, nearly falling in to him. "I'll go!" He gently caught her arm and placed a kiss on her cheek. She looked away shyly. "Goodbye Elder." She quickly left the room and Maxson stared at the closed door for a while, lost in thought. It was such a perfect start to his morning; he had no idea what lied ahead.

* * *

Tatum snuck back to her bed and changed out of her clothes and in to the brotherhood uniform, snapping each buckle happily. She couldn't stop the warm feeling that was spreading through her and she wasn't sure she wanted it to stop.

Practically skipping, she made her way to the mess hall. "Good morning!" She said with a huge smile.

"Good morning." The Mess Officer, that everyone called Sparks, replied. "Sleep well last night?" He knew that she had been having troubles sleeping, he could tell by the way she always had dark circles under her eyes.

"I did, actually." She smiled like she had won the lottery. "Any chance you can make pancakes?" She looked at him hopefully. He bit his lower lip and started scrounging around for ingredients.

"Hmm." He hummed in surprise. "Looks like I can. Although there won't be any syrup to go on top." Tatum shrugged, it wasn't going to bring down her mood. "I do have…" He paused dramatically as he reached under the counter and brought up a bar of chocolate. "This." He presented it to her, watching her eyes widen in amazement.

"Is that—" She gulped. "Chocolate?!" She had only eaten it once before in her life, on her tenth birthday. A little present from her father.

"Sure is." Sparks smiled broadly. "How about I chop it up and throw it in the batter?" He suggested and she nodded her head eagerly. He got to work straight away, using a kitchen knife with amazing speed and skill, in no time the chocolate bar had been diced in to little pieces. He mixed the flour, water, eggs, sugar, salt and milk together. The last ingredient Tatum didn't recognize. Then he added the chocolate to the bowl.

She watched with great interest as he mixed everything together. He set down the bowl and pulled an electric hot plate from below the counter. Placing it on top, he plugged it in. She watched eagerly like a puppy waiting for its meal as he grabbed a frying pan and spatula, giving her a smile every so often. He greased the pan and set it on the hot plate. Carefully he poured the batter on to the pan and Tatum watched as it sizzled and eventually bubbled.

Once it was bubbling all around, he stuck the spatula under the pancake and flipped it in the air. Tatum giggled as he caught it and set it back in the pan. He looked at her with a strange, but kind expression.

"Sorry." Tatum apologized. "If I'm being weird I can go sit over there." She pointed to one of the tables.

"No, not at all." He had a soft sort of melancholy look on his face. "I was just thinking of my daughter. You remind me of her."

"You have a daughter?" Tatum's eyes lit up. Maybe she was around her age?

"I _had_ a daughter." Sparks replied with a kind smile. "She would be 14 this year." He said more to himself than her.

"I'm so sorry." Tatum said sincerely.

"Thank you." He gave her a small smile as he slid the finished pancake on to a plate. He handed it to her and reached for a fork. "Supermutants got her. I couldn't do anything to stop them." He said as he poured another pancake on to the frying pan. "Got my wife too." He stared at the orange coils on the hot plate, his mind going back to places he had tried to forget. "That's why I joined the Brotherhood." He said as he looked up at her, giving her a small smile. "So that I would be able to protect people. People that are just like what I used to be like. I thought that if I could save even one child, I might be able to forgive myself for not being able to save my daughter." His eyes stared off in to the distance, back to the past.

Tatum was watching him closely, she hadn't touched her food. He chuckled as he refocused on the girl in front of him. "Sorry, didn't mean to ruin your breakfast. Eat up!" He jabbed at her plate with the spatula. "If it's any good, maybe I'll have one too."

Tatum nodded her head and gave him a smile. Her fork cut through the pancake easily and she put a piece in her mouth. Even without syrup it was delightful. The chocolate was a perfect combination of melty and rich. "Mmm!" She exclaimed and took another bite.

"That settles it then, this one is mine." He said as he flipped the cooking pancake. He looked over at the bowl of batter. "I made quite a bit. You're going to have to eat another." Tatum smiled and nodded, her mouth full. He chuckled and the two of them ate pancakes until they were stuffed. Two pancakes remained.

"Can I give those to Elder Maxson?" Tatum asked, feeling giddy with excitement. The Mess Officer looked surprised but nodded his head.

"I think that would be OK." He smiled at her and she grabbed the plate and a fork. With a quick "thank you" she was off and running. She still had a couple minutes before she needed to report for duty. Tatum made her way to the meeting room, where she knew Maxson would be, but as she approached she could hear him talking with someone. He didn't sound happy.

"Paladin Danse's DNA is a perfect match for a synth they called 'M7-97'. To make matters worse, he's gone AWOL. Disappeared without a trace." Maxson's voice barely contained his outrage. Tatum was frozen in her tracks. She didn't know what to do. She knew she should leave, he was having a private conversation and she was eavesdropping. But curiosity won over when he had mentioned Paladin Danse's disappearance. She listened to their conversation despite her gut telling her not to.

"His sudden absence simply reinforces our conclusion that 'M7-97' and Paladin Danse are one in the same." He continued. "I'm finding it difficult to believe that he never confided in you and then swore you to secrecy."

"You have to believe me. He never told me he was a synth!" The woman's voice rang out, obviously distressed.

"Hmph." Maxson breathed. "It seems I've misjudged you. Which means I've decided to take you at your word." His voice raised slightly as he used a commanding tone. "However, that doesn't absolve you of your duty. Danse is a synth. He represents everything we hate… a monstrosity of technology."

Tatum could barely believe what she was hearing, and from the sounds of the gasps that the woman was making, it was clear the Knight was having a hard time as well.

"Our mission in the Commonwealth is clear. The Institute and its creations need to be destroyed in order to preserve out future."

Tatum blinked, _is he going to kill him?_

"Which leaves me facing the most difficult order I've ever given. I'm ordering you to hunt down Danse and execute him."

"There has to be another way." The woman begged.

"Absolutely not, my decision is final." He said sternly. Then added, "Listen, I'm not blind to the fact that Danse was your mentor and this isn't an easy burden to bear. But if we're to remain strong, we can't afford to make exceptions… even when it means executing one of our own."

Tatum couldn't listen to anymore. She spun on her heel, leaving the pancakes on the railing, and ran. She thought she would go to her bed, her safe little island, but Knight Captain Cade caught her.

"Where are you going?" He asked, stopping her in her tracks.

"I—" She fumbled for the words but couldn't say anything.

"Well, you're five minutes late." He informed her, looking a little annoyed. "Ready to get to work?" He asked and Tatum nodded her head. She figured she could use the distraction. Maxson had said that he would kill one of his own… that didn't sit well with her one bit.

As the two of them worked, refilling syringes of med-x, Tatum was lost in thought. Even if she didn't like Paladin Danse, which she didn't, he was still the most loyal man she had ever seen. He seemed to live and breathe Brotherhood. _He's really going to kill him?_ She thought with a frown. _His own family…_

"Knight Captain Cade?" She asked quietly.

"Finally going to tell me what's been going on in that head of yours?" He questioned.

"What's a synth?" She heard the word often but never really knew.

"A synth?" Cade looked at her in surprise. "You mean you really don't know?" She shook her head. "Oh, well… A synth is a robot, created by the Institute. There are several models, some look robotic—"

"Like the ones in Neriah's lab?" Tatum chipped in.

"Yes, like those. There are also ones that look a little more human-like, with hard plastic for skin and yellow glowing eyes. Then there's the really bad ones." She was staring at him, taking every word in with great interest. "The ones that look so human, you can't tell that they're not. Half of them don't even know, from what I hear."

"Do they have feelings?" She asked, trying not to sound suspicious.

"No. They have _programming_ which is often confused for feelings. But they are machines, nothing more." He had a look in his eye like he knew what she was talking about, but neither one would truly broach the topic. He sighed deeply and set down his syringe. "Say you have a guy that's been a farmer his whole life, and he loves doing it every day. Now say the Institute abducts him and replaces him with a synth that looks exactly like him. They program that synth to have all the farmer's memories and knowledge. The synth goes about his business, tending crops."

Tatum nodded to show she was following along.

"All's fine and dandy, right?" She nodded hesitantly in response, not really sure how to answer. "Wrong." He said seriously. "First of all, that machine just replaced an actual living person." The thought did send a chill down her spine. "Second, everything that synth is doing, everyone he meets and everything he sees is most likely being transmitted to the Institute." He let that soak in a moment before continuing. "They could have eyes everywhere… even here."

The weight of that realization was almost too heavy to bear. She felt so conflicted. Paladin Danse and Tatum had never seen eye to eye, in fact she was pretty sure that he would have killed Derrell and Rachelle even knowing they weren't feral. But a feeling deep inside her told her that it wasn't his fault, he was just doing what he thought was right. He didn't deserve the fate that was decided for him.

"Knight Captain Cade? May I be excused? I'd like to go see Elder Maxson." She asked trying to sound confident.

"Do you really think that's a wise choice right now?" He questioned her and she nodded her head.

"Yes, I have to talk to him before it's too late."

"You're going to try to save Danse?" His eyebrows almost touched the top of his head. "The guy hates you."

"I know he does." She whined but shook her head and cleared her throat, speaking in a more mature tone. "Please." Cade sighed and gave her a nod. She saluted him and left quickly. When she arrived at the meeting room, Maxson wasn't there. She looked around for a moment and noticed that the pancakes she had left were missing. She searched for them by looking over the banister, they hadn't fallen. A sinking feeling was settling in to her gut, he probably knew that she was listening and was probably angry.

 _Wait!_ A terrifying thought occurred to her. _What if he's not here? What if he went after Danse himself?_ She hurried towards his private quarters, praying that he would be there while simultaneously hoping he wasn't. She felt sick, her hands shook and sweat beaded on her forehead. When she reached his door she was panting. Catching her breath before knocking, she nervously tightened her ponytail. _OK._ She thought. _You can do this._

She knocked on the door and waited for a response. After a moment it opened and Maxson stood before her, looking as intimidating as he had the day they met. He stepped aside and let her in the room. She could smell the whiskey on his breath as she passed.

"Arthur…" She used his first name which caught him off guard. "I think you're making a mistake." She took a deep breath after the words tumbled out. _No going back now._ She thought as she straightened her shoulders and back.

"Excuse me?" He replied darkly.

"Paladin Danse deserves to live." She stated boldly.

"Live?" He repeated, anger lacing his voice. "He is not living, _initiate._ He is a machine. Nothing more than a computer."

"But he is completely devoted to you and the Brotherhood—" She tried to argue but Maxson stepped towards her menacingly and she backed up until the back of her knees hit the bed.

"He is _programmed_ to be loyal, it's not real. None of it." He shook his head with a scowl. "He has betrayed my trust and betrayed the Brotherhood!" Tatum watched closely as he yelled about Danse's subterfuge. The more he spoke the more obvious it was that he was hurting. "I trusted him with _everything_ and this is what I get!?" His lower lip trembled and Tatum wrapped her arms around him before she could think.

"I'm so sorry." She said in to his chest. He was too surprised to respond. "I can't even imagine how you're feeling right now." Above her head Maxson closed his eyes, his lip giving another tremble. He bit it to keep it still. "You said that the Brotherhood was a family and that includes Danse. Please don't kill him, he deserves to live."

Gently, Maxson pushed the girl away from him and went to his desk. His back towards her as he took a long swig from a bourbon bottle. With a sigh he wiped his mouth and said barely above a whisper. "It's too late. I've already given the order."

"No it isn't! Go to him. Stop this from happening." She pleaded.

"Enough!" Maxson threw the bottle against the wall and it smashed in to pieces, glass and alcohol everywhere. She flinched in surprise and drew back in fear. "I will not have some _girl_ that doesn't know anything about the world telling me what I should and should not do." He didn't move from where he stood, afraid that he might actually hurt her if he did.

She barely held the tears back as she looked in to his face, contorted with anger and despair. Her eyes fell to the ground as she thought of what she should do. She wanted to comfort him and convince him that killing Paladin Danse would be the biggest mistake of his life. She knew that he would never forgive himself. When she looked back up she noticed the plate of pancakes sitting on his table, untouched.

"Elder, please." She spoke softly. "Paladin Danse is a huge jerk but he's not a bad man. There isn't a single thing he wouldn't do for the Brotherhood."

"But that's exactly it, isn't it?" Maxson looked her in the eyes, his composure coming back. "He isn't a bad man because he isn't a _man_ at all. He is a machine that was probably built to infiltrate our base. He is a threat to the entire Brotherhood and he will be eliminated." He ran his hand through his hair and put it back in place. "I will not risk the lives of my people for one robot." His words were crystal clear and Tatum knew there was no convincing him otherwise.

"Yes sir." She said with a salute before leaving Maxson alone in his cold metal room. She didn't feel like working anymore but dragged her feet back to medical anyway. Cade took pity on her and allowed her to do easy, mindless tasks for the rest of her shift.

When she finally returned to her bed it felt cold, unlike how warm Maxson's had been the night before. She laid down with the feeling that his bed, tonight, might even be colder than hers.

* * *

 **Author's Note 2:** Thank you all for reading my story! I love seeing that people are enjoying it. I just wanted to say that I've kind of hit a bit of writer's block, (other stories keep occupying my mind) so updates won't be as frequent anymore. But I DO intend to keep going on this one. I have lots of ideas for it still, I'm just trying to sort through them.

Again, thanks for your support!


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, Tatum woke to her alarm clock buzzing by her head. She clicked it off and stared at the rounded ceiling. She had had a fitful night of sleep, one terrible dream after another. Several had to do with Elder Maxson and Paladin Danse, fighting to the death. Danse always won because of his inhuman, robot strength.

 _I thought this was a family._ The voice inside her head kept repeating. _How can he be so quick to sentence Danse to death?_ She lay in bed feeling cold and alone. She hadn't removed her Brotherhood uniform before sleeping last night and the buckles were digging in to her skin. However, she didn't have the strength to move and alleviate the pressure.

 _If I was a synth, would he get rid of me too?_ She asked herself but already knew the answer. A tear glided from her eye to her ear and she hastily wiped it away. _Of course he would. I'm nothing to him or the Brotherhood. Danse was a_ Paladin, _I'm just barely an initiate._ Her thoughts turned dark, she couldn't believe she had fallen for Maxson so easily. He was a terrible person that did terrible things. And so did Danse; his revulsion towards ghouls, feral and non-feral alike, was overly abundant. Had he been there when the Brotherhood killed her family, she would have no doubts in her mind that it wouldn't have been an accident, he would have ordered them to shoot without hesitation.

Despite that, a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach surfaced every time she thought about him being executed. He had given his entire life to the Brotherhood of Steel and Maxson was just going to throw it all away. _So what if he's a robot? Who cares? They have a Mr. Handy inside this very ship._ She didn't understand what the difference was, one robot vs. another.

"Good morning." A timid Scribe Haylen had walked over to Tatum's bed. She hadn't noticed the woman approach and quickly rubbed her eyes, pretending they were wet from sleep and not tears.

"Oh. Uh, hi." Tatum said sitting up. Haylen sat on her bed and looked Tatum in the eyes. The young girl wasn't sure she liked having someone else come to her private island, but she decided she would hear the woman out.

"Thank you." Haylen whispered. Tatum tilted her head, unsure as to what she was being thanked for. "I heard you talked some sense in to Elder Maxson." Her voice dropped even quieter. "He let Danse live."

"Really?!" Tatum blurted in surprise. Haylen held a finger to her lips to remind her to keep her voice down. Tatum inched closer and whispered, "He's alive?"

"Yes." Haylen smiled brightly. "Thanks to you and Knight Nina, Danse still lives. Although he's been banished from the Brotherhood and as far as anyone knows, he _is_ dead." She put her finger to her lips again and gave Tatum a wink. "I just thought I'd let you know, between friends." Tatum smiled, she liked that. Haylen was one of her very few friends aboard the Prydwen and she was very thankful that she had come to visit this morning. Haylen was welcome on Tatum's island, any time she wanted.

"I'm so glad." Tatum said, feeling a warmth spreading through her again. "It just didn't feel right, you know?" Haylen nodded seriously.

"But don't mention it to Elder Maxson, I'm not supposed to know." The scribe told her and Tatum promised she wouldn't. Haylen glanced at the clock. "I think you're late?" She asked. Tatum looked at the clock as well, her shift had started ten minutes ago.

"Crap!" She said as she jumped out of bed. "I must've laid there longer than I thought." Haylen gave her a kind smile and excused herself while Tatum quickly pulled her hair in to a ponytail. She stopped long enough to give Haylen a nod and a smile.

* * *

Two weeks passed since Danse's exile and Tatum hadn't spoken with Elder Maxson once. She saw him, here and there, but they never made eye contact. She was certain he was avoiding her. _Fine, if that's how you're going to treat me then I won't talk to you either. He let Danse live, he knows I was right. Can't he just admit it?_ That had been how she felt the first week, anger getting the better of her. But as she progressed in to the second week, her resolve was fading. _Why won't he talk to me? Did our kiss mean nothing?_

All day Tatum had been helping Knight Captain Cade and Proctor Quinlan sort through old medical journals that a group of scribes had found in a broken down hospital. Her hands were starting to feel numb from flipping through page after page. _Half of this stuff doesn't even apply anymore!_ She was tired and felt irritated that the two men were happily talking to each other and almost completely leaving her out of the conversation. Their medical jargon was way beyond anything that Tatum understood and she could have sworn that Proctor Quinlan kept looking down his nose at her.

Just as Tatum was about to throw the journals in her hands, in to the air and scream at the top of her lungs, Mess Officer Sparks came to her rescue. He knocked on the wall of Quinlan's office. Quinlan's cat meowed sleepily from the desk.

"What is it?" Quinlan pushed up his glasses and scowled at Sparks. "Can't you see we are very busy?"

"Yes, I can." Sparks wasn't going to take any of his shit, even if he was his superior. "I've come to retrieve Initiate Tatum." He gave her a smile and she eagerly set down the journals. He directed his attention to Cade. "Elder Maxson sent you a message but you never answered so he had me come instead."

"Elder Maxson?" Tatum was surprised. After all this time, he was finally going to talk to her? Or maybe he just wanted her to do something for him. Her mood dampened as her thoughts grew darker.

"That's right. He'd like you, and me, to report to the airport immediately." He said with a smile as her expression showed how confused she was.

"Well, then." Cade nodded his head. "Can't be helped. Dismissed." He told Tatum and she saluted him before the two left Quinlan's office.

"So what's going on?" She asked once they were several paces away. She noticed that he walked with a slight limp.

"You really don't know?" He asked and she shook her head.

"I haven't talked to Elder Maxson in weeks." The look on her face told Sparks that she was not in a very good mood.

"Uh…" He didn't know if telling her what Maxson wanted would make her even angrier. "Maybe it's best that he tells you." Tatum was known as kind of a wild card and he didn't want her to run away from him. Luckily she didn't press for more information.

They walked to a vertibird that was docked but ready to go. Sparks hopped on to the bird and helped Tatum up. They took their seats and flew down to the landing pad at the airport. Tatum followed Sparks to wherever it was that they were supposed to go.

She looked all around her, observing the people walking by, their heads full of duties and responsibilities. No one paid any attention to the two of them as they made their way to a large and empty room. The only things in the room were people, no chairs or tables, computers or supply crates.

About twenty people were in the room. Some were talking, others stood around looking nervous. Tatum felt like she was one of the latter. Sparks pointed discreetly in to the crowd. Her eyes followed his finger. In the middle of the group was Elder Maxson, talking with several people.

Tatum's heart fluttered excitedly before her head had the chance to tell it not to, that Elder Maxson was a bad man. She took a deep breath and tore her eyes away from him. He wasn't wearing his coat like he normally was, his suit fit in all the right places.

"OK, now are you going to tell me what's going on?" She looked back at Sparks and put her hands on her hips.

"We're training." He said while rubbing his ear; it was a nervous tick that he had. "Elder Maxson said that since you're an initiate, you need to be trained _physically_ as well as mentally."

"I'm going to be exercising?" She wasn't thrilled about the idea.

"Yup!" He said happily. "But don't worry, you're not alone." He gestured to the room of people.

"Who are they?"

"New recruits." He said as he gently took Tatum's wrist and pulled her closer to the group. "Come on, let's go meet them."

"Wait." Tatum turned on the brakes and Sparks stopped in his tracks. He looked back at her, his brow furrowing. "Why is _he_ here?"

"Elder Maxson?" He asked and she nodded. "Because he's training too. Cool, huh?" He smiled but she didn't return it.

"Why?"

"I'm not sure…" He rubbed his ear again. "You could go ask him, he seems to have a soft spot for you."

"Yeah right." Tatum laughed without humor. "Maybe he used to, but not anymore. I told you, I haven't talked to him in weeks."

"Why not?"

"Because, no offense, he's a big jerk." She crossed her arms over her chest. "He's definitely not the man I thought he was." Sparks stared at her, trying to figure out what exactly had made her so mad at him. The last thing he knew, she was taking pancakes to him. A light clicked on inside his head.

"Is this about—" He lowered his voice and bent forward to whisper in her ear. "Is this about Paladin Danse?" Tatum tensed slightly and he knew he had it right. "I don't get it. Are you angry that he had him executed? Danse… well, Danse hated you."

"I know!" She yelled louder than she meant to and several people looked at her. She turned her back to them and stepped closer to Sparks. "I just thought that Maxson had a heart. I was wrong." She didn't look him in the eyes, she didn't want him to see the tears that longed to escape.

"As Elder, he has a really tough job. The hardest anyone could ever have." Sparks talked in a soothing voice and Tatum, although not wanting to forgive Maxson, couldn't help but listen. "I don't envy him, not a bit. He has to make _all_ the hard decisions. The actions of every man and woman in the Brotherhood reflects upon him as the leader." He gave her a kind smile, the kind her father would give her when she had done something stupid and hurt herself. "Try to put yourself in his position."

"If I did, the Brotherhood would be completely different." She said stubbornly. "We wouldn't be killing our own, that's for sure."

Sparks let out a soft sigh and straightened his back. He pat her on the shoulder and gave her another kind smile, as if saying: "you'll see." She wanted to run away from him, to run out of this room and find the nearest exit. She hated the Brotherhood and all they stood for, which was not family.

"Welcome!" A man in his early 40's greeted the crowd. He had a loud voice and a friendly face. His hair was shaved close to his head, like most the men in the Brotherhood, and he had a mustache that curled around his lips like an upside down "U".

The talking quickly died down as everyone in the room looked at the man. Maxson turned to face him as well, pointing his back to Tatum. Her eyes lingered on Maxson and the way his uniform hugged his strong body.

"I'm Knight Sergeant Garrett and I'll be your fitness mentor. Together we'll make the Brotherhood stronger, but it will take ambition and determination."

He gave a speech about how physical health was the key to being a successful member of the Brotherhood. Tatum barely paid attention, she didn't want to be a member at all. She waited impatiently for him to finish.

"I'll be whipping you in to shape, building up your muscles and then teaching you basic combat skills." He paused and looked around, gave Elder Maxson a nod, then continued. "Let's begin. We'll start with a couple stretches then we'll do some basic sit-ups, pushups, and squats."

Everyone fanned out, giving each other plenty of room to exercise. Sparks led Tatum in to the group and they found their positions, in the middle of the back of the group. Maxson made his way over to them and stood beside Tatum. She didn't acknowledge his presence and he didn't say anything to her.

Garrett led them through the stretches, which were no big deal to Tatum. Then the group was split into pairs, Tatum tried to get with Sparks but Maxson was faster. He stood in front of her; she scowled at him but laid on the floor with her knees up and her feet flat against the tile. He knelt and held her feet in place.

"Why are you here?" Tatum asked as she laid, arms folded over her chest.

"Because you need a partner." He played dumb.

"You know what I mean! You're not a new recruit, you don't need to train." She was losing her temper, fast. If other people hadn't started talking, everyone would have heard her.

"Since my injuries I have been neglecting my training. Now that I've healed, I figured that I would start slow." He explained.

Tatum sighed loudly and sat up, her face coming close to his. "You haven't talked to me in weeks." She laid back down before sitting up again. "And now here you are, acting like everything is fine." She repeated her exercise.

"Everything _is_ fine." Maxson said with his usual cold expression. She sat up, slightly out of breath and stared him in the eyes.

"No, it's not." She laid back down. When she sat up again, it was significantly more difficult. She knew that Maxson wouldn't have been tired already and it made her furious.

"Tatum—" He said quietly.

"Don't talk to me." She barked. Several people around her stared but she ignored them. Maxson, however, could not. His integrity was on the line.

"Initiate, do not forget your place. I am your Elder." He warned but she didn't care. With a bit of a struggle, she sat back up.

"I'm done." She said simply as she tried to push herself up to her feet. Maxson reached out and shoved her roughly back to the ground. She laid in shock on the floor. "Wha—" She balked.

"You still have 15 sit-ups left." He said dangerously, his eyes flashing with anger.

She took a deep breath before sitting again. Slowly, and fueled with rage, she finished her sit-ups. The two traded places and Maxson laid on the ground. Tatum sat her butt on his feet and rested her back against his legs. She was severely out of breath and didn't want him to see her sweaty red face. He began his sit-ups, quietly counting out how many he did. His numbers increased much quicker than hers had.

In less than half the time it took Tatum to do 30 sit-ups, Maxson had done 35. She glanced over her shoulder at him when he sat up.

"Show off." She said before quickly turning her head away from him again. He didn't lay back down, he just chuckled.

"Maybe a little." His voice was playful and Tatum peeked at him from the corner of her eye. He had a mischievous smile that made her heart swoon. "But men always show off for the girl they like."

"Hmph!" Tatum crossed her arms over her chest, she wasn't going to be swayed by his words, not after what he was going to do to Danse. _No, that's not it._ She thought for a moment. _I'm mad at him for turning against his family, Danse had nothing to do with it._ It didn't matter that it was Paladin Danse that was the synth. It could have been anyone in the Brotherhood, she'd still have been angry.

When everyone in the group had finished with their sit-ups, Knight Sergeant Garrett had everyone start their pushups, twenty five of them. Tatum got off Maxson's feet and knelt on the floor next to him. Everyone got in to position and bodies started dropping down, then back up. Tatum tried but failed her first attempt. Maxson, she saw from the corner of her eye, was on his sixth. She pouted and tried again, failing to lower herself without dropping to the floor.

"You need to put your arms out to the sides." Maxson said, pausing in the proper position. "You're putting your arms under your body and it's preventing you from lowering yourself. You have no stability." He informed her and she sat back on her knees.

"I don't care. I don't want to do this. In fact, I just want to go home." She stood and headed towards the door. With a low growl, Maxson got up and chased after her. He caught up to her in the hallway.

"Stop." He commanded, grabbing her by the wrist. Her free arm swung out, her hand balled in to a fist.

"Get off me!" She screamed as she threw a punch. Maxson caught it and twisted her arm around, pinning it behind her back as he shoved her in to the wall. She cried out in pain when her face hit the brick, angry tears already falling from her eyes.

"Get a hold of yourself. Your reckless attitude is going to get you killed." He warned, his body pressed against her back, holding her arm tightly and at an angle that made it very difficult for her to move without causing pain.

"You're hurting me!" She sobbed, her right cheek scrapped against the wall.

"Then listen." He spoke in her ear, his voice low. "I know you resent me for what happened to Danse but I did what needed to be done."

"He was _family!_ " She yelled out, completely distraught by the whole situation.

"He was not!" Maxson's voice raised too. He took a breath and spoke again, quieter. "He was a machine, not a person. He was created in a lab, artificially, not in the womb of a loving mother."

"And your mother gave you away!" She said intentionally trying to hurt him. He didn't respond immediately. "It doesn't matter if you're born in your mother's womb because not all mothers love their children anyway." She tried to argue more but she suddenly found herself on the floor.

Maxson grabbed her away from the wall and harshly threw her to the floor. She landed with a yelp and he threw himself on top of her, trapping her. She struggled against him but his weight alone was too much for her.

"Shut your mouth!" He had her wrists in his hands, holding them above her head. "You don't know _anything._ My mother loved me. She sent me to be a part of the greatest military in the world." His chest heaved, full of emotion. "I would be _nothing_ if not for her."

"You are still nothing. Nothing _good._ " Tatum wailed, wiggling her body underneath him. "You are a monster! Let me go!"

"You will die out there." He warned.

"I'd rather be killed by one of those monsters than one that disguises himself as a hero." She tried again to free herself, but Maxson didn't move an inch. "You're worse than Paladin Danse. He may have been a synth that looked like a man, but you're a demon that looks like a man."

Maxson's lip curled in to a snarl, he raised his fist. Tatum threw her, now free, arm over her face to protect herself from his punch. Her eyes tightly shut, bracing for impact but it never came. The hand on her other wrist unwrapped itself from her, finger by finger. Maxson sat back, allowing Tatum to pull herself out from under him.

"Go." He said as she scooted away from him. "If you want to leave, then leave." He masked his emotions and looked in to her eyes. "Take the vertibird back and get your things. Leave your uniform, you won't need it." He stood and looked down at her. "And then never come back. I don't want to ever see your face again."

She got to her feet and cautiously backed away from him. "Fine, I will." She said, still watching him closely to see if this was a trap. He turned his back to her and took a step before stopping and turning his head to the side, his eyes not meeting hers.

"Maybe you'll run in to Danse… because I decided to spare him." He didn't wait around for her to reply, he didn't care what she had to say. He walked back towards the training room even though he didn't feel like doing anything except killing something. Maybe he would go on the next mission and work through some of his pent up anger.

Tatum didn't follow, she didn't retreat either. She was glued to the spot, too many thoughts in her head. It was true, he _did_ spare Danse's life, but after everything that had happened, she couldn't stay any longer. The things she had said to him and the way he always resorted to violence to prove his dominance, she knew things would never get better.

Without a second glance she ran back to the helipad and climbed in to the vertibird. She didn't look at or talk to anyone on her way to her bed. Her clothes were folded in a chest and she quickly put them on. The Brotherhood uniform that had been given to her was thrown carelessly across her bed. She thought about Haylen, Cade, and Sparks; her three friends. She would miss them but truly felt like they wouldn't think about her ever again. They might even be glad that she's gone and not causing trouble for anyone anymore.

No one stopped her as she marched through the Prydwen. No one really paid attention to her at all, which was fine by her. They would all be a distant memory soon enough. She had the vertibird pilot take her back to the airport and from there she found a hole in the wall that she crawled through and stepped out in to the Commonwealth.

A small smile spread across her face. She was finally going home.


	7. Chapter 7

Returning home was not easy. Tatum didn't have any weapons, in fact, she didn't have anything except the clothes on her back. Her first goal was to locate a gun. Second, she needed to get some food and a convenient way to carry it. Her first several days through the Commonwealth went how she expected it; slowly. She hid most of the time from anything and anyone that passed her.

The one lesson she had learned from the Brotherhood is that you couldn't trust anyone, no matter how attracted to them you are. Elder Maxson's face continued to haunt her dreams. She wanted to believe that he was a good man, but he wasn't. Anyone that could give up on family like he did, was scum in her book.

It took over a week for her to make her stealthy retreat back to her home. Her home where Derrell and Rachelle's bodies had been picked over by the creatures of the Commonwealth. The garden she had worked on day after day had been ransacked and what was left of the crops laid on the ground, crushed. The smell that permeated the air was nauseating. Tatum carefully entered her home, hoping that some animal hadn't taken up residence.

The house had been thoroughly looted, not even the bobby pins on her dresser remained. _So much for my stuff._ She thought pitifully. She turned from her dresser towards her bedroll, except that it had been taken as well. Nothing remained in this house for her, nothing but her memories and thinking about her life before the Brotherhood was still too painful.

Blinking the tears from her eyes she set out back in to the wastes. _This is no longer my home._ She had abandoned several "homes" before but this time was different. She didn't feel sadness, not even regret. She felt a sense of tranquil relief. Her heart ached for her family but she knew that her heart no longer belonged here.

 _Diamond City._ It was a name that everyone knew. The jewel of the Commonwealth, and hopefully Tatum's new home. She looked to the stars and found her way towards Diamond City, to the southwest. Derrell had taught her how to read them. As she walked she remembered that night vividly.

* * *

Tatum had woken from a nightmare, as she did many nights. She had gotten out of bed to get a drink from the water pump and had run in to Derrell outside of the house.

"What's wrong?" She had asked him, his cheeks glistening with tears. He just turned his head and gave her a sad smile.

"Let me tell you a story." He held his hand out and she gently took it. He led her behind the house where the sky was wide open and the stars and moon shone brightly. "Do you see those stars?" He sat on the ground and pointed towards a cluster. Tatum sat next to him, her head raised towards the moon.

"Yes."

"That one is called Perseus. Do you know his story?" Derrell looked to the girl who shook her head, eyes still transfixed on the stars. "He was a brave man. But he needed to be stronger than anyone else because, from birth, he was always in trouble."

"What do you mean?" Tatum tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at the old ghoul, he gave her a smile and turned his eyes to the sky.

"The God of the Heavens, Zeus, raped his mother. When her father found out that she had birthed a child, her son Perseus, her father locked her and her newborn baby in a crate and pushed them out to the ocean. He was fearful of little Perseus because the oracle of Delphi had told him that one day his grandson would kill him."

"That's awful." She said as she watched the ghoul, his eyes still taking in the moonlight.

"Luckily, they survived their journey at sea. But their troubles didn't end there. Perseus' mother was very beautiful, enough so that she had attracted the attention of a God, which was usually never a good thing. Men with power are easily corrupted. They lose track of what's really important..." He paused, deep in thought. "Many men wanted her hand in marriage." He continued. "But as Perseus grew, he protected her from those men. Men that only wanted her for her beauty."

"That's good." She laid on the ground, arms behind her head.

"It was good of him to protect his mother, but it caused lots of trouble for him in the long run." Derrell laid back as well. "I don't think he regretted it though, he was a good man with a good heart. That's not to say he didn't make some bad choices here and there, but everyone does." Derrell closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the cool night air. "He fought many monsters and overcame great hardships, that's why he's immortalized in the stars. I think it was the love of his mother that allowed him the strength and courage to do so."

"That and he was the son of a God." Tatum chuckled and the old ghoul laughed along with her.

The two had laid on the lawn for quite a long time, Derrell telling her about different constellations and how to always find her way home. Tatum smiled at the memory, her eyes lifting to the night sky, a tear sliding down her cheek.

* * *

The journey to Diamond City took longer than she had expected, the area was surrounded by supermutants, raiders, and feral ghouls. She quietly hid from them, waiting to see if they would leave but they had set up bases and weren't going anywhere. Several times Tatum had to find a way around, knowing that she was no match against any of them.

Finally, she had almost reached her destination when she heard the echoing howl of a mutant hound. She turned quickly to see the beast charging at her. Steadily she raised her gun and fired. An eruption of bullets whizzed past her and in to the monster. She turned to see several Diamond City Guards racing towards her and the oncoming supermutant attack.

 _Leave it to the professionals!_ She told herself as she ducked out of their way. She sprinted past the guards and to the closed gate of Diamond City. She pounded on it and desperately cried out.

"Please! Let me in!" She pounded several more times before noticing a speaker to her left. She walked over to it and pressed the button. "Hello?" She asked in to the static.

"Hello?" A man's voice replied.

"Can you let me in? Please." Tatum asked.

"I'm sorry but the gates are closed for the safety of the City. Once the supermutant threat has been dealt with, I'll open the gates back up."

"But that's why I need in!" She pleaded.

"I'm sorry, I just can't." He did sound genuinely apologetic but it didn't make Tatum feel any better. She checked her bullets, three left. All she had found was a 10mm pistol that barely worked. She had spent several nights trying to repair it, thinking back to all the times she had watched Derrell mess with his guns.

Another mutant hound cried out and Tatum spun around. _Relax, they have turrets._ She tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. _You're OK, just wait a little longer._ She crouched down and tried to make herself as small as possible, hoping that nothing that wanted to eat her would see her. She hugged her knees, gun at the ready, and waited.

Half an hour later, several guards returned to the gate. Two guards carried their wounded comrade between their shoulders. He was bleeding in several spots. Tatum got to her feet and pressed the red button on the speaker.

"They're back and they have wounded." She told the man through the com.

"Sullivan, it's us!" One of the guards called over Tatum's shoulder. The gate began to move, gears cranking. Tatum covertly assessed the wounded guard's injuries. He had several bullet holes and a large bite in his side. The blood was pouring from him and his head hung limply.

"Put him down." Tatum said as she stood in front of the guards. "You're causing more damage by dragging him around like that." She tried her best to sound like a figure of authority.

"Move it kid, we gotta get him to a doctor." One guard said impatiently.

"You're not listening!" Tatum said, reasserting herself. "You are making his condition worse." She pointed to the pool of blood beneath him and then pointed to the trail they had left behind. "Lay him down here, I can help." She pulled the bag that held her belongings from her back and knelt.

"What's going on?" The guard, Sullivan, that had spoken to her over the speaker rushed to his friends' sides.

"She wants us to lay him down here." One of them explained.

"He isn't going to make it much further." She only glanced up at them for a moment before looking back down at the medical kit she had thrown together from all the supplies she had found. "He needs those wounds closed. I've dealt with his kind of injuries before." She threaded the suture needle and gave them an impatient look. "Or let him bleed out." She said with a shrug.

The guards shared a glance at each other before laying him down in front of Tatum. She immediately got to work, removing his armor and clothes. Her hands worked faster than her brain. She had seen Knight Captain Cade perform this kind of operation hundreds of times, even assisted him with several, but this was the first time she was doing it alone.

The guards watched nervously as she injected a stimpak in to the unconscious man. She sewed the deep gashes on his side closed, then extracted the bullets from him with a pair of forceps. She stitched those holes closed too.

A smear of blood was left behind on her forehead when she wiped away the sweat that had collected at her brow. When all the big wounds were closed tight she attached another stim to his body and wrapped bandage around it to hold it in place. She let out her breath, satisfied with her work.

"There." She said as she packed her tools. "He should be alright now. He'll need plenty of rest." She looked at Sullivan when she said this. He nodded firmly.

"Who are you?" He asked. "And where did you learn to do all that?" His eyes were wide with astonishment.

"Tatum, and I…" She hesitated. How did they feel about the Brotherhood of Steel? "I studied under a doctor for a while." She decided that she wouldn't reveal more than necessary. Danny Sullivan seemed satisfied enough with her answer.

"Thank you." He said as she got to her feet.

"It was my pleasure." She smiled. "May I enter the City now?"

"Yeah, of course!" He turned to the side and put his hands out like he was ushering her inside. "Hell, I'll even buy you a meal."

"Thank you! That would be wonderful." She gave him a big smile and they entered the City together.

* * *

Tatum remained a welcome guest in Diamond City for several days. She had even begun studying under the resident doctor, Dr. Sun. He often asked her who had taught her but she never gave him a straight answer. In fact, she never talked about her past to anyone. The local newspaper's reporter, Piper, was always sniffing around her but she never gave the woman the time of day. Her life was her own and _not_ for the general public.

Things were going well for Tatum, for a while. She even met a synth. He turned out to be a friendly enough guy, but very busy and tended to keep to himself. She wasn't surprised, everyone was so terrified that the Institute would steal someone they knew and replace them with a synth. A man was even murdered for holding a gun to his brother's head, accusing him of being an impostor.

It was all madness to Tatum, she didn't fear synths. What she feared was people. It was regular people that killed one another, not synths. It seemed to her that synths just wanted to live their lives, like anyone else. Paladin Danse had given his entire life to the Brotherhood and Detective Nick Valentine devoted his life to helping others. Regular people were the ones to be feared.

Her fear came to fruition one day after a resident of the City had gone missing. She was sitting at the medical stand that Dr. Sun operated, when suddenly a man ran over to her. He pointed his dirt covered finger in her face and screamed for the guards.

"Look! Guards! There's the evidence right here!" He yelled out, immediately causing a scene. Everyone in the marketplace abandoned their stands and gathered around. Dr. Sun came to Tatum's aid.

"What is the meaning of this?" He questioned as guards infiltrated his stand. Tatum looked at Dr. Sun, clueless.

"There! There it is." The man continued to point at Tatum. Finally she reached to her neck and delicately lifted the necklace that Doc Crocker had given her as a reward for cleaning his operating room. The crowd gasped when the sun shined off the necklace. Dr. Sun still looked just as confused as Tatum.

"What is going on?" He demanded again.

"You're under arrest for the disappearance of Susan Timble." The guard said as he grabbed Tatum's arm. She roughly pulled away from him.

"Get off of me!" She jerked away from his grabbing hands. "I didn't do anything!" She confessed her innocence but it fell on deaf ears.

"She's wearing her necklace!" The man kept shouting, the crowd getting riled up.

"What?!" Tatum removed the necklace from her neck, while still dodging the guard's grabbing hands. She threw it at the shouting man. "Take it! I didn't know it belonged to someone. It was given to me!" Her voice was drowned out by the angry shouts of the people.

"Synth! Murderer!" The crowd called to her. More guards approached the area and with a desperate look in Dr. Sun's direction, she knew she was alone. He had stepped away from her, his eyes to the ground and his head lowered. It was clear that he wasn't going to take the fall with her.

A pair of arms swung out around her and she dropped to the ground to avoid them. In the blink of an eye she rolled to the side and pushed past a thin spot in the crowd. Her legs ran as fast as they could towards the gate. _Please be open!_ She prayed as a bullet grazed her shoulder. She cried out in pain, the bullet burning hot, but didn't stop running.

She jumped down the stairs towards the outer gate, landing on her ankle. It twisted underneath her but she pushed through the pain. The gate was open and she barreled through, tears blurring her vision as her ankle throbbed. _Keep going._ She encouraged herself.

By sheer willpower alone she had made it out of the City and in to the ruins of the Commonwealth. When the pain in her ankle spread through her thigh, she finally stopped running, crashing to the ground. She lay there sobbing and cursing. Her ankle was purple and swollen, she knew the moment she had landed on it that it was broken.

The bag of her belongings was still at Dr. Sun's medical stand. She had lost yet another home and all her belongings again. She cursed loudly at the sky, feeling utterly worthless.

The guards could be looking for her, she doubted it but figured it's better to be safe than sorry. Gingerly she got to her feet, hopping towards the nearest ruined building. She used the wall to help support her weight as she hid inside. Her heart thumped wildly and her entire body ached. She would stay there, hidden in a wardrobe, until tomorrow when she would have to set out to find another home. She hugged herself tightly and hummed the tune that Rachelle had hummed to her on the nights when her dreams were full of terrors. It didn't help with the pain she felt but it did help soothe the anxiety she felt at having lost another home.

 _Tomorrow,_ she thought as she rested her head against the wood. _Tomorrow I'll find my forever home. A place where everyone is welcome._ She closed her eyes and hoped that Good Neighbor wasn't actually as dangerous as every said it was.

* * *

The following morning Tatum crawled out of the wardrobe, her neck and back sore from sitting all night. Her ankle looked worse than it had before and the pain was excruciating. She knew she had seriously messed up her foot, she had had a broken bone before but it didn't hurt nearly as much as her ankle did now.

With a deep breath she crawled out of the building and followed the road out of the ruins. She used all her strength to break a branch off of a tree and use it as a walking stick. She also grabbed two small sticks and tore along the bottom of her shirt to make bandages. She wrapped the sticks around her ankle in order to stabilize it. By the time she was finished she was out of breath again.

The bark of the tree rubbed roughly on her back when she sat against it. Sweat dripped from her hairline and down her face; she quickly rubbed it away and closed her eyes. _Five minutes and then I have to keep moving._ She told herself as she rested.

"Ah, there you are." Nick Valentine's voice came from the left of the tree. Tatum nearly jumped out of her skin. She couldn't believe how quiet he was. "It's alright." He reassured her holding up his hands. "I'm not here to hurt you."

"Then why are you here? I'm not going back. I didn't do anything." She firmly grasped her walking stick, ready to defend herself.

"I know you didn't." He didn't move any closer to her, sensing that she was already tense. "And I'm not here to take you back." He wiggled the bag he was holding and Tatum noticed it for the first time. It was hers.

"My stuff?" She looked at him questioningly.

"I thought you might need it." He gently tossed it to her and she caught it.

"Thank you." She stared at him with wide eyes. "But, why? Why are you helping me?"

"Because I know you didn't have anything to do with Susan's disappearance. And I know what it's like to be run out of your home. Diamond City isn't exactly the most welcoming…"

Tatum chuckled without humor. "And I'm not even a synth."

"Right." Nick said, adjusting his hat as he noticed the girl's condition. "What happened to your leg?" It didn't look like she had been shot.

"I twisted it while I was running away." She felt her face get hot out of embarrassment. "It's broke pretty bad." She frowned.

"Well I put a couple of stims in your bag for you. Figured you could use it."

"Thank you. That couldn't have been cheap." She was astounded by the generosity of this robot.

"It wasn't any trouble. I had a couple around the office, and it's not like I use them." He pulled a cigarette box from his pocket and tapped one out. She watched as he stuck it in his mouth and flipped open a golden lighter, lighting the end of the cigarette before inhaling.

"So…" She watched him as he took a couple of puffs, smoke escaping from the sides of his face where the fake skin had started to decay. "You're really a synth." She stated and he chuckled.

"What gave me away?" He smiled at the girl and she smiled back. Finally she opened her bag and retrieved a stimpak and some bandages. She took a deep breath and grimaced as she plunged the needle in to her leg. She sat perfectly still, eyes shut tight as she tried to remain calm.

Nick watched the girl, her face pale and sweaty and her shirt torn and used for bandage. She was a tough one, but still, she was just a little girl. He finished his cigarette and dropped it to the ground before stepping on it to smother out the last few embers.

"Where ya headed?" He asked and she opened her eyes to look at him. She hesitated for a moment, pondering whether or not to tell him.

"Good Neighbor." He had been kind to her so far, she figured she could trust him.

"Really? You ever been there before?" He questioned with a look of concern.

"No." She admitted as she carefully wrapped the stimpak in place. "But I heard that everyone is welcome in Good Neighbor."

"That's not entirely true…" He said as he watched her wrap her leg. "Synths aren't. Except for me. I know the mayor." Nick stepped closer to her and she didn't make any movements that showed she was afraid. He walked over to her and knelt beside her. "But it's not the synths you have to worry about." He looked her in the eyes as he held out his hand to her.

"What do you mean?" She asked as she placed her hand in his. He helped her to her feet and bent over to pick up her walking stick and bag.

"It's the neighbors in Good Neighbor that you ought to be wary of." He handed her her things and she slung the bag over her shoulder and firmly held the stick. "The town is crawling with filth; drug dealers, con artists, rapists, murderers."

"Where else am I going to go?" She asked desperately. Nick thought for a moment, his hand cupping his chin in a very human manner.

"You could try to find a settlement to stay at. Ever heard of the Minutemen?"

"Yes, I've heard of them." But the name was all she knew. That and the fact that their leader walked around in power armor.

"I think they would be your best bet. Of course the farms do get attacked by raiders and mutants quite often…" He went quiet again as he thought.

"I won't be run out of my home again. I've had enough raiders and supermutants to last a life time. I'm going to Good Neighbor." She looked him determinedly in the eyes and all he could do was nod with a deep sigh.

"I guess you've made up your mind then."

"Yes, I have." She nodded firmly at him.

"Guess I'll just have to show you the way." She looked at him suspiciously. "What kind of man would I be if I let a pretty young girl like you walk in to Good Neighbor alone?" She chewed on her lip as she contemplated whether he was truly trustworthy. "I'll talk to Mayor Hancock, maybe I can get him to watch out for you."

"I don't need him to watch me, I just need a place to stay." She told him.

"Fine, fine. But living ain't free. You'll need to find yourself a job. I know a woman that might let you stay with her if you cleaned around her place."

Tatum frowned, it wasn't that she minded working for a living, she just wasn't sure why Nick was helping her.

"Why are you _really_ helping me?" She watched as his eyes narrowed.

"You're not the trusting sort, are you?" He asked as he flexed his metal hand, the one without the artificial skin on it. "Is it really so hard for you to believe that I'm just a nice guy that wants to help?"

"Yeah, kind of." She answered bluntly and he frowned.

"You've had it rough, haven't you?" His yellow glowing eyes stared in to hers as if he could see in to her soul, but she wasn't about to look away.

"I just don't see why you'd help. I have nothing to offer you."

"Maybe it's just in my programming." He smirked. "I like helping people and I'm pretty good at it. Why do you think I'm a detective?"

"Because you can probably see through walls or something." She said seriously and Nick laughed.

"That would be handy. But, no. Unfortunately I can't do anything like that." He adjusted his hat again and looked her squarely in the eyes. "So are you going to let an old synth help you, or not?"

She thought about it for several moments. He had helped when no one else would. He also did seem like a genuinely nice guy. Also, if he had connections in Good Neighbor, that could seriously help her. She sighed and nodded.

"Alright, let's go." She took a step forward and stopped. "So, uh… which way is it?"

"You don't know?" He laughed. "You really do need my help." He pointed in the correct direction and started walking. She followed slowly behind, each step hurting worse than the last. Nick kept a steady but slow pace as her pace became slower and slower. Eventually Nick stopped and looked back at her.

"I'm coming." She said slightly annoyed.

"I see." He said as he watched her limp forward. He stood patiently until she was standing next to him, panting like a dog. "Now don't get the wrong idea," he said as he put his arm around her. "I can't even do stuff like that." He lifted the girl in to his arms and she flailed helplessly. "Hold still, I don't want to drop you." He ordered but she continued to wiggle in his arms. Her struggle was pathetic, she was completely exhausted.

"Put me down! I can walk myself!" She thumped on his hard chest but he ignored her.

"I'll put you down when that stimpak runs out." Tatum's head swam as she thought about the needle that was still in her leg. Suddenly she was grateful that he was holding her, she felt light headed.

"Aren't I heavy?" She asked, no longer squirming in his arms.

"Not at all." He replied but she couldn't tell whether he was lying or not. It didn't look like it was difficult for him to carry her, no sweat dripped or heavy breathing. _Wait…_ Tatum thought. _Can he even do that?_ She watched his face closely, there wasn't any sign of moisture.

Nick's yellow eyes turned to look at her. "Something on my face?"

"No." She answered quickly. "I was just thinking and I accidentally stared. Sorry." She looked away from him. "So what happens when we get attacked?"

"You any good with a gun?" He asked and she shook her head miserably.

"Not really, no."

"Oh." He pondered for a moment. "Then I suppose I'll just have to set you down and deal with it myself." He gave her a sideways smile and she found herself smiling back. _How can synths really be the enemy?_ Nick was so nice, and Danse was so loyal. She inwardly sighed as she thought about Maxson and his backwards ideals.

"Mr. Valentine?" Tatum said shyly.

"I'm holding you in my arms, I think it'd be alright if you called me Nick. I appreciate the formality though." He smiled at her.

"OK, Nick… um…" She tried to get her thoughts together. "Can I tell you something that I haven't told anyone else?"

"As long as you're not confessing to murder, I suppose you could." He joked and she smiled.

"No, not murder." She laughed. "But…" Her face fell and Nick watched with concern. "I was living with the Brotherhood of Steel for a few weeks. That's where I learned everything I know about medicine."

"Oh. Them." Nick obviously wasn't a fan. "So what happened?"

"It's a long story." She looked to her new found friend and he nodded.

"We've got time."


	8. Chapter 8

Tatum opened her eyes, the sun was just beginning to rise. Her body bounced lightly each time Nick took a step.

"Nick?!" As she came to her senses she wiggled in his arms.

"Ah, so you're awake." He gave her a kind smile.

"You're still carrying me!" She flailed, embarrassed, and his grip tightened.

"You were so tired, you just fell asleep in my arms. I thought about settling down for the night but then I figured that would wake you, so I kept walking." He explained. "It's not like I sleep or eat or anything like that."

"You're not even a little tired?"

"No, not at all." He gave her a wink.

Tatum huffed. "I don't get it." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Even after I told you I was with the Brotherhood of Steel, you still insist on helping me."

"That's because you're not really one of those blinded elitists. You were taken there and held against your will. All they did was kidnap you. I'm still not sure why, though."

"Me either." She said sadly with a sigh. "I thought maybe… Elder Maxson…" Her heart ached as she thought of the man that had torn it apart. No matter how hard she tried, she could not forget how kind he was to her the night he shared his bed with her. His kiss had been so gentle, and his hand warm as she held it until sleep overcame her.

Tatum closed her eyes as she laid still in Nick's arms, fighting her feelings. She knew that she would never see Elder Arthur Maxson again, and that it was her choice to leave, but deep down she knew she would always miss him. _Stop being stupid_. She scolded herself. _Maxson is a jerk. He's mean and abusive._ She recalled the last time she had seen him, it felt like it was so long ago. He had forced her against a wall and then threw her to the ground. _Stop!_ She ordered herself as a tear slid down her cheek.

"Are we almost there?" She asked Nick, desperate to think about anything but Elder Maxson.

"Yeah, it's just up ahead." If Nick saw the tears that poured down Tatum's face, he ignored it. She was eternally grateful for that.

* * *

They had arrived in Goodneighbor a couple hours ago. Nick introduced her to Mayor Hancock, a ghoul in an old red military uniform. He seemed like a decent guy, maybe a little shady but so was the rest of the town. After meeting with the Mayor, and being welcomed in to Goodneighbor, Nick took her to the Memory Den. He had talked with an older blond woman who was lounging on a couch. He had introduced Tatum to Irma and convinced her to let Tatum stay with her.

Tatum would clean the Den in exchange for room and board. It was an acceptable arrangement, but it left the young girl without any income. She would need to find other odd jobs in order to earn some caps.

After Nick had made all the arrangements for Tatum he said his goodbyes and left her to her new life. She was sad to see him go but she understood why he left so quickly. He had been right, this town wasn't safe. It gave off an aura of sin. And even though Mayor Hancock allowed Nick in to Goodneighbor, the residents still watched him cautiously.

"Tatum." Irma called from her couch and Tatum took a deep breath as she pulled her hair back in to a ponytail. She had been given a room on the upper floor and had tended to her wounds. Her arm, where the bullet had grazed her, stung as she rubbed some ointment on it, but it was her ankle that concerned her the most. Even after having a stimpak on it for several hours, it was still an angry red color and swollen. She had taken several test steps to see how much pressure she could put on it, it wasn't much.

Slowly and carefully she limped through the short hallway and down the wooden stairs to the main floor. She used the wall and her walking stick to hobble over to Irma. The woman in the red dress was still perched on her couch.

"What am I going to do with you?" She asked exasperated. "You can barely walk. How are you supposed to clean?"

"Please, just give me a few days and then I'll do whatever you want." Tatum pleaded, not eager to lose another home.

"That's a dangerous thing to say, dear. You best mind your tongue or someone will take advantage of you." She cautioned Tatum. She knew Irma was right, Goodneighbor was exactly the kind of place where your words could cause you a lot of trouble. "My, my." Irma said, craning her neck to see behind Tatum. "If it isn't our generous Mayor." Tatum turned to see Hancock walking towards them with a pair of crutches in his hands.

"I just thought I'd give our newest friend a little gift." He held them out to her and Tatum graciously took the aluminum crutches. "They were lying around at home and I figured it'd be better to let someone that needed them, use them, than have 'em sit around and collect dust."

"Thank you very much Mayor."

"Call me Hancock, we're all friends here." His voice was raspy but not fully like a ghouls'.

"Ohh," Irma pouted. "You're not here to see me?" Tatum adjusted the crutches to the proper height as Irma shamelessly flirted with Hancock. He teased back and the two giggled happily. _This place is either going to be great, or kill me._ Tatum had a sinking feeling in her stomach but hoped it was only from lack of food.

"Whoa." Hancock chuckled as Tatum's stomach growled. "That Nick…" He shook his head. "He's been starving ya, hasn't he?" He laughed again. "It's 'cause he don't eat. He tends to forget that everyone else does."

"Don't you worry about her, Hancock. She'll get plenty to eat while she's here." Irma cooed and the Mayor gave her a wink. It was strange to see everyone getting along so well, most people, even if they liked ghouls, would never flirt with one. Although that may have just been Irma's personality because Nick had flirted with her a little too.

An idea struck Tatum. A woman like Irma had to have had several relationships, she probably was very knowledgeable. _What's the point?_ Tatum frowned. Elder Maxson and she were never going to see each other again. _But maybe she has advice for forgetting about him._ She sighed inwardly and turned her attention back to the mayor who had just excused himself.

"Thank you very much, for everything." Tatum said as she bowed her head humbly.

"No problem, kid." He said with a wide smile. "I'm sure we're going to be good friends in no time." He gave her a wave and left. Tatum stared after him until the turned the corner and she could no longer see him. _Friends?_ She repeated to herself. For some reason, she was starting to feel worried again.

"Tatum." Irma called her name and she turned to face her. "There is food through that door, help yourself and then get some rest." She smiled kindly at Tatum and pointed towards a door.

"I will, thank you." She used the crutches and silently thanked Hancock again. It was such a relief to be off of her foot. She entered the kitchen and ate until she was full then she carefully ascended the stairs back to her room.

* * *

A couple weeks passed as Tatum recovered and started working full time for the Memory Den. She would clean the memory loungers before and after every guest. She dusted the lamps, tables, and everything she could reach. The floors were swept and the place looked cleaner than it ever had. After getting the building to a nice clean state, the upkeep was simple and didn't take long. She would spot clean whatever needed it, and then she would head out in to the town.

Tatum picked up odd jobs here and there to make some caps. Most the time it was delivering something to another resident or somewhere just outside of town. She never strayed too far, she knew she wasn't a fighter. Mayor Hancock had her run a couple errands for him as well, mostly to pick up his drugs from the local dealers.

Overall, her life was alright. She missed her family, missed Elder Maxson and a couple of the Brotherhood members, but she was making new friends. Irma and Doctor Amari were nice ladies, they could be strict every once and a while but Tatum didn't mind. Kent, who practically lived at the Den was also very nice. She would spend hours at a time with him as they listened to the radio together.

With the caps she had made, Tatum sold her mostly broken 10mm pistol and purchased a better one and more ammo. She hid it in her room most of the time until she needed to take care of business outside of the town.

The residents of Goodneighbor were generally friendly towards her, and she was friendly to them. The ghouls, which was the majority of the inhabitants, were cold towards her at first but after learning that she had lived with a ghoul family for a couple years, they put their guard down and would greet her kindly as she passed.

One day, about three weeks after she had moved in to Good Neighbor, there was an explosion. It was big enough that it shook the ground and caused some panic. Everyone had run around the town, searching for their loved ones and safety. Hancock stepped out on to his balcony where he often addressed the town, and tried to keep everyone calm. A couple days after the explosion, which luckily didn't cause any major damage to the town, Hancock called a meeting.

Everyone gathered around under his balcony and looked up at their Mayor. He cleared his throat before he spoke. "Friends," He said. "I have gotten word that the Institute is no more." The entire crowd simultaneously started talking. Hancock shouted to get everyone's attention. "The Brotherhood of Steel is claiming that they are responsible for their destruction."

Tatum gasped, as well as a couple other people. _He actually did it?_ She knew she shouldn't be surprised, Maxson was a strong leader and he always seemed to accomplish what he set out to do. _But…_ Tatum thought about the Institute and all the synths that had been killed. _And what about everyone else?_ She didn't know if the facility was operated by synths or people. _What if they were regular people, just like me?_ She grimaced as she thought of all the potential lives lost.

"Just because the Institute is gone, don't rest easy." Hancock's warning interrupted Tatum's thoughts. "Who knows how many synths are still around?" The crowd looked nervous. "But don't fear, we will stand strong, like we always do. Goodneighbor!" He yelled.

"Of the people! For the people!" The crowd chanted along with Hancock.

* * *

The next several days were filled with talk about the Institute and the Brotherhood of Steel. Tatum tried to leave the Memory Den as little as possible, she didn't want to hear it. She visited Kent more often and listened to the Silver Shroud almost all day and night until Irma intervened.

"Tatum, dear." She said, stopping Tatum in her tracks. She turned to look at the older woman that was resting on her couch, Tatum's hand frozen mid-reach for Kent's door.

"Yes?"

"Come here, I want to talk to you." Irma patted the couch cushion in front of her body and Tatum walked over. "Dr. Amari is worried about you." She said when she saw that Tatum wasn't going to sit with her. "She says you're depressed. Is it true?"

"No." Tatum said firmly. It was true that she was feeling a little confused at the moment. On one hand she was still angry at Elder Maxson for not being the man that she thought he was, but on the other hand, a part of her still cared for him and was happy that he had accomplished his goals.

"Hmm." Irma hummed as she looked at the girl in front of her. "Alright then, if you're not depressed, then what's the matter?" Tatum shook her head with a shrug to show that nothing was wrong and that she didn't know why Irma was asking.

"I'm fine." She gave Irma a smile; it was more difficult than she thought. "Kent is waiting for me…" She spoke softly.

"Very well." Irma sighed. "But Tatum, promise me that you'll go out and get some fresh air tomorrow. You've been cooped up in here for days."

"Ok." Tatum tried not to sigh. "I promise."

* * *

Arthur Maxson's bare chest raised and fell as his head swam. He laid in bed, eyes closed, clutching a bottle of whiskey. His body felt warm despite the cold metal interior of the Prydwen. He brought the bottle to his lips and tipped it to let the last drop of alcohol slide out of the bottle. He knew it was empty but stubbornly tried to get more from it. With a heavy sigh he lightly dropped the bottle to the floor.

The Brotherhood had celebrated the destruction of the Institute for the past several days. Maxson, however, did not. He still had more responsibilities to tend to and the problems aboard his ship seemed to never end. There were still crates of supplies missing from the logistics division, the Minutemen were thriving better than ever before and still needed investigating, Scribe Neriah's mole rats had escaped during a cleaning and gotten in to all the food reserves on the ship, and perhaps the most heinous crime, Maxson was out of alcohol.

He slowly rolled himself on to his side, his back to the wall and his eyes desperately trying to focus on the room in front of him. The spicy liquid had made his senses numb and his vision blur but he didn't mind. The Institute was gone, no one could stop them now.

His arm hung limply over the side of the bed as he listened to the purr of the engine and the footsteps of his crew. The sun was still up and there was lots of work to be done but Arthur decided to give himself a "sick day". He even went as far as telling Knight Captain Cade that he wasn't feeling well and needed rest. The doctor, of course, wanted to give him a checkup but Maxson had refused, saying that he just needed some time alone.

What he didn't tell Cade was that he really needed alcohol, not rest. He had meant to savor his last bottle but ended up drinking it quickly. His stomach rumbled and he threw a hand over his mouth, suppressing the feeling of being sick all over the floor. He took slow, deep breaths to calm himself as the room liquefied in front of his eyes. He closed them again and rested. With his eyes closed it felt like the Prydwen was on the water and not in the air.

Maxson's mind wandered, imagining what it was like to be a pirate captain, commanding a group of dastardly, scurvy-ridden pirates. He chuckled to himself, it had been ages since he imagined something so silly. He tried to remember the last time he had had such childish thoughts but he couldn't recall. _Has it really been that long?_ He thought as a wave of sadness washed over him. His childhood had been stolen from him when his father died and his mother sent him to join the Brotherhood. He didn't regret it, of course, the Brotherhood was everything to him. It was his birth-right even.

Deep down, however, Arthur did feel like he had missed out on _something_ by joining. Something he would never get back. Innocence. Bloodshot eyes opened slowly as his body longed for the warm, soft touch of Tatum's hands. Maxson knew that his own innocence was long gone, never to be found again. But Tatum, she was the next best thing. Her long wavy hair and tiny body, short enough to be mistaken for a child. Her wide eyes, full of wonder and youth and her beautiful untainted smile. He sighed loudly, feeling empty inside.

The truth was that he missed her more than his own parents. The realization of that fact had sent him in to a spiraling depression. _How could I feel more attached to a girl I had only known for a little while, more than my own parents?_ Maxson felt like he was going crazy. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her face. The only time her face didn't appear was when he was drunk, then it would be like a blurry glimmer of light in the corner of his mind. He hated the feeling he got every day when he thought about how they had parted. He regretted being so mean to her, he knew that the anger he had felt towards her was not from the things she was saying but from the fact that she wanted to leave him.

His whole life had been one big sob story that he desperately tried to ignore. His Father was the first to leave him, then his mother. He had made several friends in the Brotherhood but they too had left him, killed in action. The Lone Wanderer, a man he had idolized, left him too. The Wanderer was alive, as far as Maxson knew, but he had left the Brotherhood and traveled west. Elder Lyons died not long after and was succeed by his daughter Sarah. Arthur had grown to respect the Lyons family with and unwavering loyalty but they both died eventually and left the Brotherhood to him.

Since becoming Elder, he had lost countless numbers of troops. Good men and women that put their lives on the line every day for the Brotherhood and Maxson's vision. He had learned long ago to not weep over every death or he would have drowned himself in his own tears.

And now, the one girl that had been a shining light in the darkness of his life, hated him and left like all the others. Maxson moaned as he rolled on to his back, his eyes still firmly closed. Absent-mindedly he ran his hand over his chest and down his stomach where four long scars decorated his body. He thought back to the day he had received the scars and felt tears prickling at his eyes.

"Damn it." He mumbled and threw his arm across his face. He hated himself for what he had put her through, what he was _always_ putting her through. He remembered how scared he had been when he saw his first Deathclaw. Her scream echoed in his mind. She had been terrified, and it was entirely his fault that she was in that situation. He groaned. He was always using fear and intimidation to get his points across.

 _If I was a real leader I wouldn't have to do that._ The alcohol fueled his self-loathing. _If I was a real leader she would have wanted to stay._ He pounded his fist against the mattress. _All I ever did was hurt her and scare her._ He swallowed hard to keep the tears from coming. He was the Elder of this Brotherhood chapter and he would not be defeated by his emotions and feelings for an ignorant and naïve little girl.

He let a sigh out as he relaxed his body that had become tense. It was true that one of the things he liked about Tatum was how innocent she was, and that had been what initially convinced him to invite her to stay with the Brotherhood. The other thing that he noticed immediately was her facial expression when she was brought before him. Despair was obviously the dominant expression but there was something else, something that maybe even Tatum hadn't realized was there. In her eyes burned a fiery passion to live.

The look in her eyes was something that Maxson had come to learn was one of the traits that all his best soldiers had. He thought, with some guidance, Tatum would become a great member of the Brotherhood. He had treated her the same way he would treat any other soldier, with fear and intimidation, however, that was not how he wanted to treat her. He never considered himself a gentle man, but he felt like he wanted to be, with her.

At first he only saw her as a child; lost, like he used to be. Then something changed and he started to notice that she was actually an adult, only one year younger than himself. He started to notice the way her old t-shirt was tight around her chest, the way it hugged her waist and the way her jeans fit her hips. Her skin was soft and her hair was shiny and long. He loved the waves in her hair and the way it bounced as she walked. The women he had grown up with all had short hair and in contrast, her hair was the prettiest he had ever seen.

He let out another sigh, feeling sick to his stomach that he was being so emotional over something so unimportant. He had other priorities to attend to but instead he drank himself stupid and wasted away in his room. If he ever saw her again, he swore to himself that he would apologize for the way he had treated her. After a considerable amount of thought, he deemed his behavior to be inappropriate and unfair. Tatum was not one of his soldiers and he had no right to treat her the way he did. He had forced her to live on the Prydwen and to join the Brotherhood by making her an initiate. No one was ever _forced_ to join, they always volunteered.

A loud knock on his door made the Elder flinch. He lowered his arm and looked towards the sound. _I thought I told Cade that I didn't want to be disturbed._ He thought angrily as he pushed himself up on his bed. He carefully swung his legs over the side and sat facing the door. "Enter." He said, his voice hoarse.

"Sir." Sentinel Nina opened the door and took a step inside. She took one look at Maxson's drunk and half undressed state and frowned. "We need to talk."

* * *

For the past three days Tatum had taken Irma's advice and started to leave the Memory Den again. She even picked back up on her side jobs. It was on one of those jobs that she had encountered the most terrifying thing she had seen since the Deathclaws in the Vault.

Mayor Hancock had sent her to check out a building that had been brought to his attention. Her job was to just take a look and find out what was going on. He made it very clear that she was not supposed to engage any of the raiders or anyone else that she saw. It was supposed to be a quick in and out. That ended up _not_ being the case.

The journey to Pickman Gallery was easy, she didn't run in to hardly anything that wanted to kill her. Just as she was feeling pretty good about her mission, she found several raider corpses littering the ground outside the building that she was supposed to investigate.

"Crap." She whispered and ducked around a corner. She peered around the edge and held her gun at the ready. None of the bodies moved and nothing came out of the building. She took a deep breath, cursed Hancock for sending her here, and advanced. Quietly she opened the door and stepped inside. A couple raiders were down the hall from her, yelling and pounding on the walls. She crouched down and tried to make herself as small as she could and kept to the shadows.

Eventually the raiders moved on and she was alone. The room to the left of the entrance was wide open and the scent of blood and corpses filled the air. She covered her mouth and nose with the back of her wrist as she slowly came in to the room.

Corpses decorated the room. Body parts were strategically placed throughout as if they were all part of an elaborate and beautiful sculpture. But it was not beautiful, it was bloody and smelled awful. She held her breath as best she could, fighting the urge to vomit. Desperate to not look at the horror that surrounded her, she raised her eyes and saw that there were several paintings on the walls. They were almost as disturbing as the body sculpture.

The smell was getting to her and she gagged, coughing loudly. She frantically looked around and prayed that no one had heard her. As she looked around she say a calling card laid on one of the bodies. She quickly grabbed it and left the building. As soon as she got outside she leaned over and let the contents of her stomach spill on the ground. After catching her breath she moved away from the building and hid in one across from it. The card was for Pickman gallery, it had a red heart on it.

"What a psycho!" She cried louder than she meant to. Her hand slapped against her mouth as she listened to the silence around her. She waited but it didn't seem like anyone had heard her. A sigh of relief breathed from her mouth as she shoved the card in to her pocket and left the building. _Time to go home._ She thought as she rechecked the ammo in her gun for the fifth time today.

She walked along the road and tried not to think about what she had just seen. The scent of death still lingered on her clothes and the bile rose in her throat. She swallowed as a shiver went down her spine; she would have nightmares for weeks. Of course, she already had bad dreams almost every night, nothing had changed. Raiders, Supermutants, Deathclaws, and now corpse art would forever haunt her.

"Hope it was worth it." She complained. "Stupid Hancock… he should have gone himself." She felt like she should be outraged but for some reason, she wasn't. All the corpses, the random body parts, the blood, and the strange paintings weren't the scariest thing she had seen in her life. Her own father had been stuck on a pole, Rachelle and Derrell were turned in to tiny bits from the minigun that shot them, and paintings were nothing compared to a Deathclaw.

Really, it was the smell that got to her. A smell that she knew she would never get used to and had no desire to either. Her stomach churned and she had to stop walking, her hand steadying herself against a wall. She closed her eyes and took several breaths. After a couple dry-heaves she continued home, cursing Hancock for sending her.

Tatum turned the corner and ran in to a large, muscled body. The force of the impact made her fall, landing on her butt. She looked up at the green giant as he looked down at her.

"Sneaky little bleeder!" The Supermutant yelled as he aimed his assault rifle at her. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Tatum watched the mutant raise his gun. She wanted to scream, to close her eyes and faint but her body moved without permission. She threw herself to the side, rolling on the ground as bullets cracked the cement where she had been sitting.

Her body kicked in to autopilot as she got to her feet and ran with all her strength away from the mutant. Bullets flew around her body, one pierced through her left shoulder but she didn't stop running. Another couple bullets hit a window nearby. She recklessly threw herself through the window, glass shattering all around her.

As Tatum landed, she cried out in pain, pieces of glass stuck in her body and her shoulder bleeding profusely. Tears spilled from her eyes but she didn't have a moment to wipe them. She hopped up and continued to run from the mutant that was chasing her. Bullets shot through the broken walls like it was paper. The amount of bullets told her that she was now being hunted by several mutants. She could hear them yelling at her but couldn't focus on what they were saying, she didn't care.

Tatum kept a tight grip on her pistol, she knew that it would take more bullets than she had to kill all of her pursuers, but she knew she would only need one for herself if the situation arose. She would rather put a bullet in her own head than fall victim to the mutants. She had seen the gore bags that they keep, and she didn't want to be in one of them.

The only advantage that Tatum had against her mutant enemies was that she was small. She easily slipped through cracks and holes in the walls that the others could not. She managed to get a decent amount of distance between them before she slowed her run. Supermutants weren't known for being intelligent and Tatum thought that if she found a decent place to hide, she might actually be able to trick them.

The mutants were out of sight, lost within the apartment building and Tatum took a moment to crawl in to a closet. She closed the door behind her and tried to quiet her breathing. Her back was pressed against the side wall and she peeked through the slats in the door. Luckily she hadn't left a blood trail behind.

"Where'd you go?" One of the Supermutants yelled angrily. From the sound of it, he was in the hallway just outside of the room Tatum was in. She closed her eyes and prayed that he wouldn't find her. Her eyes shot open when she heard his heavy footsteps enter the room. She turned her head to look through the slats. The mutant kicked the bed, flipping it over. _Thank God I didn't hide there._ She thought as he aimed his gun at the floor where the bed had been. Seeing that no one was under the bed, he groaned and called out for her again.

She watched as he searched the room and her heart stopped when his yellowed eyes landed on the closet door. _No, no, no, no…_ She brought her gun forward and held it up to her chest, ready to shoot. He approached the door and stopped less than a foot away. She didn't want to have to shoot, it would alert the rest of them to her position, but she didn't see any other choice.

Tatum didn't wait for him to open the door, she unloaded an entire clip in to her enemy and kicked the door open when she was out of bullets. The mutant fell over dead, as she ran past him. She loaded a new clip in to her pistol and sprinted through the halls as the other mutants screamed and charged after her. Again, bullets flew everywhere. She was hit in the right shoulder blade and in her right calf. Her leg gave out and she fell to the ground. She cursed as her gun flew from her hand and the hard floor kissed her face.

"Ahahaha! Gotcha!" The Supermutant cheered as he unclipped a grenade from his belt. He pulled the pin and casually tossed it at Tatum. It rolled up next to her and she scrambled to get to her feet but her shoulders and leg weren't cooperating. She screamed and closed her eyes as light and heat swallowed her.


	9. Chapter 9

The grenade exploded in a white hot light. Tatum's eyes involuntarily squeezed shut and she prayed that death would come quickly. Her body felt like a Supermutant had tackled her, and for all she knew, maybe one had. Despite the pressure in front of her, her body felt weightless as the heat engulfed the room. She wrapped her arms around herself, only to find that something else _was_ there. She opened her eyes hoping it really wasn't a mutant but she couldn't see through the blinding light of the grenade.

The heat of the explosion was lessening as she was moved away from it. The ground beneath her had started to collapse and the ceiling, losing its base, followed. _I'm not dead._ She thought as she flew through the air. Suddenly everything went dark and she landed on the ground, hard. A heavy weight on top of her crushed her down as the ceiling fell.

The piercing sound in her ears was still ringing but she heard the faint sound of a man cry out in pain from above her. She gasped at the voice, it was one she had heard before and knew well despite it being muffled. Warm blood trickled out of her ears and down her cheeks. The dust and dirt from the collapsed building caused her vision to be obscured and her lungs to spasm wildly as she gasped for air. She was being crushed from the ceiling and the man on top of her; slight relief came when he pushed himself up a little to let her breathe.

Both of them coughed, their eyes closed to protect them from the dirt that still swirled in the air around them. Tatum wanted to see him. She knew it was Elder Maxson but until she could see him with her own two eyes there was a small trace of doubt in her mind, it didn't make sense that he would be here. The body on top of hers tried to move again but didn't get far before collapsing.

"Fuck!" He growled as he tried to move his legs. A large wooden beam was lying across them, pinning him to the spot. He tried to wiggle his legs free but couldn't. He was still gasping for air but the dust cloud was finally starting to settle.

"Arthur…" Tatum breathed, barely above a whisper. A ray of sunlight shone through the broken building that allowed her to see only one side of him, the other was shrouded in shadows.

"Tatum, I'm sorry." He pushed his torso up and off of hers. "I'm sorry for everything." The words spilled from his mouth but she didn't care about his stupid apology.

"What are you doing here?" Her words were a mix of confusion and panic. Her whole body hurt and there was liquid pooling under her head. "How did you find me?"

"I'm going to get you out of here." He said seriously as her blood reached his fingertips. He pushed himself up as hard as he could causing debris to fall off of his body. More dust filled the air but he didn't stop. He turned as much as he could and tried to push the beam off of his legs. He yelled in frustration and pain as he shoved it away, his jeans tearing as a nail in the wood dragged through his leg.

Tatum was crying under him, her vision blurred and her lungs full of dirt. Her body was broken, bloody, burned and bruised. Maxson hastily pushed away the remaining debris that was trapping him to her.

"Arthur—" She sobbed and he gently pulled her limp body to his. He held her and stroked her blood soaked hair.

"It's going to be alright." He told her, his words were confident but soft. "I'm going to get you out." He promised as he carefully lifted her. She cried out in pain as he stood with her and limped through the room. Adrenaline and willpower propelled him forward. He was a man of his word, and he _was_ going to get her out of this building.

He carried her through the debris and climbed out of the basement where they had fallen and to the ground floor. The whole building was in shambles and could come down at any moment. There was no sign of the Supermutants that had been chasing Tatum. Maxson hoped they had been crushed by the cement walls that had toppled over but he wasn't letting his guard down.

Maxson set Tatum on the cement fence just outside of the building. She was barely conscious and covered in blood. He looked her over quickly as she fell forward, back in to his arms. He lifted her and made his way to the nearest town, Goodneighbor.

* * *

Tatum slowly opened her eyes, blinking to adjust to the light that shined in from the window. She was in her room in the Memory Den. Her body ached and her mind was fuzzy. _How did I get here?_ She couldn't remember leaving the broken building. Her eyes widened suddenly when she remembered that Elder Maxson had been there with her. She turned her head and saw him hunched over in a chair, fast asleep.

His arms were crossed over his chest and his head was down and to the side, she couldn't see his face. He was wearing a flannel button up shirt and a pair of old, torn blue jeans. He had one black combat boot on and the other leg was wrapped in a large cast. The crutches Hancock had loaned her were leaning against the wall next to Maxson.

She slowly sat up, her head spinning. Tatum rested a minute before trying to move more. She felt the back of her head with his fingers, stitches closed a gash under her hair. Both arms were bandaged from the bullet wounds and burns that covered her body. Her leg was bandaged as well and her clothes had been changed, her old ones were ruined.

Once she was sitting, with her legs over the side of the bed she gently called out to him. He inhaled deeply as he woke, raising his head to look at her.

"Tatum." He said as his eyebrows raised. "You're awake!" He sounded relieved and she wondered how long she had been unconscious.

"What happened? Why am I alive?"

"You don't remember?" He asked and she gently shook her head. "I grabbed you just before the grenade went off. I used the mutant as cover."

"You… saved me?" She stared at him, amazed. "But why were you even there?"

"I was looking for you. I figured you would go to Goodneighbor and just by luck I found you running from mutants." He sat very still, not making any attempts to get closer to her.

"You thought I would go to Goodneighbor?"

"You have a strange taste for genetic abominations. It just made sense." He said with as little malice as he could.

"I thought you never wanted to see my face again." She tried to sound angry but she couldn't help being relieved to see him.

"I saw your face every time I closed my eyes." He admitted and she could barely believe she had heard him right. "I couldn't stop thinking about you, about how I had treated you. I've never been close to anyone the way I wanted to be with you. I…" He thought about his next words. "I'm sorry I hurt you. That's not how you should treat people you care about." He lowered his eyes to the floor and Tatum stared at him, shocked.

"You—" The emotions swirling around inside fought against each other. Eventually, anger won. "You're just realizing that now!?" She hollered and he looked back up at her, his eyes wide and mouth slightly open. "You fucking idiot! If you had just been nice to me in the beginning, we wouldn't be in this mess!" She wanted to march over to him and punch him with all her strength but her body wouldn't allow it. Her sudden outburst had made her head spin and she clenched the bed below her tightly to keep herself steady.

"Tatum, I—" He tried to speak but she cut him off.

"I _wanted_ to trust you! To be with you! But you kept pushing me away… why?" Tears poured down her cheeks as she waited for him to answer. He remained silent and she exploded in anger again. "If you're not even going to talk to me you might as well just leave. How can I forget you, if you keep showing up? Leave me alone!" She was shaking so hard that could barely stay sitting.

"I love you, Tatum!" Maxson yelled, letting his emotions get the better of him. "I know I hurt you in more ways than one but that's why I'm here. I needed to apologize. I was stupid, I made a terrible mistake. Please forgive me. Please." For the first time, Tatum heard desperation in his voice as it cracked at the last word. He breathed deeply, fighting against the tears that threatened to reveal themselves. "You're all I have now, and even then, I _don't_ have you."

"What do you mean? Why don't you just go back to your ship?" The anger was rapidly leaving her body, only pain and sorrow remained.

"Because I can't." He whispered, looking to the floor. "It was taken from me."

"What?"

"I… I'm no longer Elder Maxson. I'm just… Arthur." He kept his eyes to the floor and Tatum watched him closely.

"You quit?" She asked in disbelief.

"I was overthrown. Sentinel Nina is now the new Elder. They—" He buried his face in his hands as he tried to calm himself. Tatum waited patiently for him to speak again. "I failed as their Elder." He shook his head. "They overthrew me." He repeated like he couldn't believe it had happened.

"How could they do that?"

"After the Institute was destroyed, I promoted Nina to Sentinel… She was well respected and admired by everyone on the ship. Danse's little recruit." The words burned bitterly as he spoke. "Apparently several members thought she would make a better Elder than I did." He laughed without humor as he finally met Tatum's eyes. "So here I am, in Goodneighbor of all places." The scowl was so deep on his face that Tatum thought it might stay there forever.

"There's nothing wrong with this place. Just misfits looking for a home. Like me, and now, like you." She explained and his scowl didn't lessen. "Did they try to kill you?"

"No. Not at first, not until I attacked her. She defended herself, in power armor. My fists did nothing to her and she easily subdued me." He looked away from Tatum. "I might have also been a little drunk at the time." He didn't remember all the details but he knew enough to know that he was pissed.

"I bet that's how Danse felt." Tatum knew she shouldn't say that but he needed to know.

"He's probably jumping for joy now." He growled. "The two of them were… close. I'm sure she's allowed him to come back." He bit his lower lip angrily. "She is going to ruin everything I worked for."

"Maybe this is a good thing." Tatum said and Maxson almost choked. "What I mean is that you have a chance to make a new life for yourself."

"What makes you think I _want_ a new life? I liked my old one." He sounded like he was getting ready to kill someone, and Tatum figured he would have if his leg wasn't injured.

"You don't really believe that, do you?" She asked as she watched him closely, hoping he wouldn't limp over to her and beat her to death. "You were miserable. I could see it in your eyes."

"Miserable?!" He repeated, his voice raised and his fists clenched. "I _was_ the Brotherhood! It was my entire life for the past ten years. I devoted everything to them and now…" He was shaking. "This is how they repay me. For leading them to victory against the Institute, I get cast out." He wasn't yelling anymore, in fact his voice was deadly calm. "They've betrayed me and the Brotherhood of Steel. As far as I'm concerned, they are traitors and need dealt with immediately."

"By who?" Tatum challenged. "You?"

"Maybe I can find another chapter and tell them."

"Or," she suggested, "you could just forget about it and move on."

"You don't know me at all, do you?" He said angrily.

"Yes, I do actually." She folded her arms over her chest and straightened her back. "You're going to think about this until you die. Your death will be sooner rather than later because you're going to be thinking about it so much and end up making yourself sick."

"That's stupid." He said, his face a blank slate, the same face he used to always show her when she was on the Prydwen.

"Yes, it is. So you shouldn't stew over it. Just move on!" She said cheerily and he frowned. "I, for one, am glad that you're here. I missed you, a lot." He stared at her, not saying anything. She continued, "I thought about you all the time."

"Even after how I treated you?"

"Yup. Stupid, right?" She laughed and Maxson raised an eyebrow. "I guess your heroic side really left an impression."

"Wasn't that all the time?" He asked cockily.

"No." She replied flatly, his ego falling. "I first noticed it when you saved me from the Deathclaw. And then I saw it when you gave that eulogy at the memorial service. It happened again when I had that nightmare and you let me stay with you."

"A whole three times. Wow." He said completely unimpressed. Tatum sighed.

"Yes, a whole three times." She repeated. "But they really meant a lot to me. So much so that I overlooked all the times you were an ass."

"And how many times was that?" He questioned but Tatum ignored him.

"In the Brotherhood, you weren't able to be yourself." She held up her hands when he tried to speak and he closed his mouth to let her finish. "Yes, that was a part of you but not the whole thing. I know that you are a good person, you just had too much weight on your shoulders. Anyone would get crabby with the world on their shoulders. Think of Atlas."

"What?"

"Never mind." She sighed and carefully got to her feet. Maxson watched her with concern. "I know that the Brotherhood was a big part of your life, but it wasn't all of it." She limped over to him and sat sideways on his lap. A light blush spread across his face when she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You and I could never be together if you were still with them. I know you don't want to hear this but I hated the Brotherhood. I don't agree with what they believe and I never will."

"I do. I believe it with all my heart." He said seriously.

"And what did that get you?" She frowned. "They didn't believe in you with all their hearts, did they?" She could see the hurt in his eyes before he looked away from her. "I'm sorry." She whispered and lightly turned his face back towards hers.

Their lips pressed together softly. They kissed slowly at first, each one not wanting to hurt the other one. Maxson's arms wrapped around her body and held her tightly against himself despite his broken ribs. Tatum ran her hand through the long hair on top of his head and let her hand run down the back of his head and to his neck before imitating her other hand and cupping his face. They kissed slowly and passionately, exploring each other's mouths until they couldn't breathe.

"Arthur," Tatum's warm breath puffed against his lips as they slowly pulled apart. "Please stay with me."

"Yes." He said just as breathless as she was. Maxson knew that if he had any chance of surviving without the Brotherhood and finding happiness, he needed Tatum.

They kissed again, holding each other with all their strength. Tatum knew that no matter what came her way, Maxson would always protect her. And when trouble came his way she wanted to be there to help him through it. She felt that despite their differences, the two of them were meant to be together. Maxson was strong when she was weak, and Tatum was compassionate when he was cold. They held each other all day, talking about their pasts, the present, and their future. Together.

* * *

 **Epilogue:**

Children played with a ball in the street as Tatum sat in an old lawn chair. She watched as they kicked the ball back and forth. A strong hand slid its way on to her shoulder and she looked up at Arthur. His hair was still the way it had always been, long on top and shaved below. She gave him a smile as she gently took his hand in hers. His arms were darker than before they had met, having spent more time in the sun. His dirty white t-shirt hugged his body tightly, showing off his firm muscles. Tatum looked him over greedily, her man was the envy of all the ladies.

Arthur leaned forward and placed a kiss on top of Tatum's head, her long wavy hair was much shorter now; most of it had been burned in the fire from the grenade. She had been upset about it for a long time but Arthur didn't care, to him the length of her hair was just an added bonus; Tatum was all he really needed. She grabbed on to his arm and used it to help herself up and he wrapped an arm around her as she steadied herself.

"Thanks." She said as they kissed. A chorus of: "Ew's!" echoed from the children. Tatum smiled sweetly at Arthur as she rubbed her belly which was just about as big around as the rubber ball the children were playing with was. "I can't wait." She smiled.

"I can." He chuckled as he scooped her off her feet and in to his arms. She squealed as he did so and he smiled broadly. "Let's go inside, you've been out here long enough."

"I _can_ walk, you know." She teased as she traced shapes on his chest. He just kissed her in response, earning more disgusted comments from the children nearby.

Arthur carefully carried Tatum in to their home and set her down on their bed. He climbed on top of her, careful not to put any pressure on her belly and kissed her tenderly. She sighed in to the kiss and ran her hands up his strong arms. He trailed kisses down her neck and on to her exposed shoulder, kissing the bullet scar there. He suggestively tugged at her bra and tank top straps, looking in to her eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" She scolded playfully. "You know we're expecting a visitor." She reminded him and he frowned. "Now, now." She booped his nose playfully with one of her fingers and his frown deepened.

"Why do you like that thing?" He sat back on his knees that were straddling her legs. His romantic mood was completely ruined.

"He is not a _thing,_ Arthur." She corrected as she reached out for his arm. He held it out and helped her up so that she was sitting on the bed. "He's my friend."

"He's a machine, Tatum." He said with a look like he had just eaten something sour. Tatum laughed and shook her head at him.

"You're still so Brotherhood."

"I was with them for the majority of my life."

"Half." She corrected holding up her finger. "Half of your life, which is not the majority. If anything, it's less than half now because you've been with me."

"The point is, it's how I was raised. I can't think differently." He said stubbornly and Tatum sighed.

"Whatever, just try to keep it to a minimum when _she's_ around." Tatum rubbed her belly lovingly. Maxson backed up so that he could lean down and kiss her stomach.

"I'll try… and it's a boy." He gave Tatum a playful wink and she shook her head with a smirk.

" _So_ not a boy. She's my little girl."

"He's my little soldier."

The two stared at each other in an unspoken battle of wills, until there was a knock at their door. Tatum's face broke in to a huge smile and Maxson let out an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. He got off the bed and helped her to her feet. She quickly ran out of the bedroom, her arm around her stomach, and through the hall to the front door.

"Nick!" She squealed as she hugged her synth friend. "Come in! Come in!" She moved so that he could step inside.

"Nice place you got here." He commented as he took a look around. "You say that Brotherhood man of yours built it?"

"Yes, we both did. Our neighbors helped too." Tatum was positively beaming with pride and Nick gave her a smile.

"Good, good." He pat her on the arm. "Looks like you've finally found a place to call your own." Tatum's eyes teared up but she blinked them away. It had been a long and difficult journey to get where she was and she would never forget everything that had happened, the good and the bad.

"Mr. Valentine." Maxson's gruff voice greeted as he came around the corner.

"I finally meet the man behind all the mystery." Nick joked.

"I think you're the one that's a mystery…" Maxson said trying to keep a light attitude. Tatum gently slid her arm through his and pressed herself close to him.

"Nick, I'd like you to meet Arthur Maxson. Arthur, this is Detective Nick Valentine." Maxson held out his hand and Nick shook it with his right hand, the one where the metal was exposed. Maxson found himself frowning and tried to quickly wipe the expression from his face.

"And who is this?" Nick said with a smile as he patted Tatum's belly.

"My daughter." She said coyly and Nick removed his hat, placing it to his chest and giving her stomach a bow.

"It's a pleasure to meet you little lady." He said as formally as he could and Tatum giggled.

"Liar." Maxson said and both of them looked at him with confused expressions. Nick placed his hat back on his head and opened his mouth to speak but Maxson cut him off. "That's not her daughter, it's my son."

"No way!" Tatum argued, stamping her foot on the ground. Nick chuckled.

"You'll see. I can feel it." Maxson said confidently.

"Well I can _literally_ feel it!" Tatum lightly slapped Maxson's arm that she was holding and he gave her a smile. "Anyway," she said as she turned her attention back to Nick. "Let me give you a tour."

"Sure." He said and she removed herself from Maxson's arm and reattached herself to Nick's.

"Don't overdo it." Maxson advised and Tatum waved his suggestion off casually.

"Don't worry, she's in good hands." Nick said over his shoulder and Maxson bit back his disbelief. He watched as the two of them left the house and closed the door behind them. He sighed and slouched slightly. Tatum had told him everything that had happened since she left the Brotherhood and he knew that Nick had helped her, but there would always be a part of him that wouldn't like Nick, no matter how hard he tried.

Arthur plopped down on the couch and let his head fall back and rest against it. A little over a year had passed since he had found her in that mutant infested apartment and they were still dealing with the damage it had caused. Tatum's hearing had never fully recovered, she heard well enough but it wasn't what it used to be. Maxson's back had been burned badly that day and he had plenty of scars to show for it; in fact, they both had plenty of scars from that day.

Besides the physical injuries that day had caused, there were also the emotional ones that still lingered. When the Brotherhood had abandoned him, it left him feeling broken and alone. He often thought of finding a few bottles of whiskey and drowning himself in them. Having Tatum around was the only thing that kept him sane, and even then, sometimes, it was difficult.

The two of them had shared similar heartache in their lives but their upbringing was completely opposite. Tatum was extremely accepting and Maxson was not. She welcomed everyone in to her life like they had been long lost friends and Arthur tried to turn everyone away. Between the two of them, they were left with only a handful of friends.

They had remained in Goodneighbor while their wounds healed and Maxson hated every second of it. He rarely left Tatum's room in the Memory Den; he despised the majority of the inhabitants of the town. Ghouls, drug dealers, murderers, and thieves littered the streets and it made every hair on his body stand on end. Tatum, however, enjoyed the riff-raff of the town. She even befriended several of the ghouls that Maxson avoided like the plague.

Their relationship was stretched paper thin, but at the end of the day the only person Tatum wanted, was him. They would both cuddle up on her small twin-sized bed and hold each other, keeping the nightmares and painful memories away.

When their wounds had healed enough that they could move out of Goodneighbor, they did. Maxson couldn't get out of there fast enough, he didn't care where they went as long as it was far from there. They ended up moving in to a Minutemen settlement to the north. It was a cozy little community with several couples and about five children. Tatum quickly befriended the locals and convinced them to let the two of them live there.

Tatum would help with the gardening and livestock, occasionally she would watch over the children. Maxson immediately set to work getting better defenses in place. After securing the land with more turrets and guard posts, he started building a house for Tatum and himself. The neighbors were happy to help and before they knew it they had a lovely wooden home.

They met the General of the Minutemen, the man in power armor. He was a kind man, young, and had delicate features. Sarai was his name and he was extremely intelligent. He had built most of the armor himself which Maxson was happy to hear he hadn't stolen it from the Brotherhood. Maxson couldn't help but thinking what an asset he would have been for the Brotherhood, but those days were over and he never mentioned his thoughts to anyone.

Maxson ran his hand through his hair and sighed. Tatum and Maxson were always arguing. It seemed like the two of them couldn't agree on anything, but despite that they still held each other every night as if they were afraid the other would disappear. No matter how much they argued and fought, they always let their differences go by bedtime. It was almost like their bodies knew that they needed one another, even if their minds didn't. When they were together Tatum didn't have nightmares and Maxson didn't find solace in the bottom of a bottle.

* * *

Tatum and Nick walked through the settlement as she told him about their neighbors and Sarai. She was surprised to hear that the Minutemen's General lived in Diamond City. Nick told her that he was rarely home because he was always defending the people. She thought that one day, maybe, just maybe, Maxson would join the Minutemen. She knew he was bored 'playing house', and that he secretly longed for the military lifestyle he had grown up knowing. The Minutemen seemed like the most logical choice.

"Are you scared?" Nick asked suddenly and Tatum stopped in her tracks.

"Of what?" She asked and he pointed to her stomach. "Oh. No." She smiled and rubbed her baby. "I'm really not, strange huh?"

"Is there a doctor that's going to help you deliver?" He asked seriously, concerned for her wellbeing.

"No." She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Some of our neighbors said they would help as much as they could."

"That doesn't sound very safe." Nick watched as Tatum fumbled with her hands, nervously.

"Yeah, but it's all we can do, you know?" She tried to give him a confident smile.

"What about Sarai?" He suggested. "He's handy with machines but I think he knows quite a bit about people too."

"Really?" Her eyes widened at the thought of someone that might actually be able to help her. "Do you think he would help?"

"I'm sure of it." Nick said with a smile. "I'll get a hold of him, don't you worry about a thing. I'll even try to convince Doc Sun to make the trip out here. That should help too."

"Thank you Nick!" She hugged him and he gently hugged her back.

"Of course. Anything for my goddaughter." He teased as he patted Tatum's belly.

"You got that right!" She beamed at her friend and took his hand. "Let's head back." He nodded and the two made their way home. A smile spread across her face because in her heart she knew that no matter what happened she had found her permanent home. It wasn't the settlement they lived in, her home was in the hearts of the people she cared about and that cared about her. As she approached her house, Maxson stood just outside the door, waiting for her with a smile on his face.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Thank you for reading my story! I hope you all enjoyed it. I also hope that the ending wasn't too terrible. I've always had problems when it comes to endings. Leave me a review or a PM and tell me what you thought! Thanks again!


	10. Chapter 10 Bonus

**Author's Note:**

Here's a little bonus story. Enjoy!

* * *

Arthur rolled his shoulder, somewhere along his spine something popped and he breathed a sigh of relief. His dark hair was stained red as he ran his hand through it, pushing it back and out of his eyes. Splashes of blood, from his enemies, decorated his clothes. There was a cut in his worn leather pants from a combat knife that one of the raiders had been lucky enough to slash him with. He put a fingerless gloved hand on his shoulder and rolled it again, applying pressure. It popped again and the pinch in his back lessened.

"If you keep doing that, you're going to do more damage than you are good." Nick flicked his cigarette butt to the ground and stepped on it as he passed.

"Shut up." Maxson scowled but Nick shrugged it off. Maxson had been helping the Minutemen for a few years now and Nick would tag along sometimes. The two of them still didn't see eye-to-eye but it didn't stop Nick from going.

"If you keep picking at that, your shirts going to unravel." Nick teased with a serious tone that caused Maxson to glare at him. Internally, Nick smiled.

"Leave me alone, synth." Arthur warned as he tugged at the loose hem at the bottom of his gray t-shirt.

"Fine, but it's the misses that's gonna be mad when she has to fix _another_ one of your shirts." Nick turned his head to hide the smile on his face. Maxson groaned in frustration and dropped his hand to his side. "You hungry yet?" Nick asked. They hand been travelling for hours after saving a new settlement from raiders.

"You have food?" Arthur looked at his unwelcomed companion.

"No, but they probably do." Nick pointed with a metal finger towards a small diner. Maxson sighed loudly and turned slightly west, towards the diner. Nick followed as Maxson stepped inside and talked with the woman behind the counter. He bought himself a quick snack and sat in a booth. Nick took his seat across from him.

"Not hungry, Nick?" Maxson asked sarcastically.

"I hope your daughter doesn't inherit your charming personality." He said under his breath, but still loud enough that Maxson would hear. He chose to ignore the robot's comment and focused his attention on the radio playing nearby. It was tuned in to the Minutemen's station.

Arthur certainly didn't mind clearing the commonwealth of abominations; in fact, he quite enjoyed it. However, he preferred to do it alone. Tatum never came with him, she was at home watching their daughter. A small smile played at Maxson's lips as he thought about the two most beautiful women in the world. Tatum, almost 27 years old now, had grown her hair out again. Danae, their only child, just turned six a few weeks ago, _four weeks_ , Maxson remembered. She had beautiful long hair like her mother but it was dark like her father's.

Danae's face was sprinkled with freckles along her nose. Her nose was just like her mother's, small and perfectly round. Her lips were fuller, like her father's, and her eyes were a beautiful green-blue. Arthur knew that when she was older he would have to fight the men off of her. _No one_ was good enough for his little girl.

"Attention all available Minutemen!" The song on the radio was interrupted by a man's voice. "Supermutants have raided Sanctuary Hills. Eye witnesses report that several residents were carried off by the mutants. They were headed southeast—" Maxson didn't wait to hear the rest of the broadcast. He leapt up and hurdled out of the window next to the booth he was in, Nick following slightly behind, having used the door.

The two men raced towards home. Maxson's body was exhausted from his latest mission, but that didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered to him except getting home and making sure his family was safe.

Nick had no problem keeping up with Arthur, his body didn't ache in the slightest and he never ran out of breath. The synth admired Maxson's stamina; when he set his mind to something, there was no stopping him. The two ran and ran, and by the time they entered Sanctuary Hills, Arthur nearly collapsed.

Nick didn't pay him any attention as he continued forward, heading to Tatum and Arthur's house. He flung the door open and called out her name. There was no response. If Nick had a heart, it would have stopped. Blood pooled on the floor and Danae's hair ribbon lay in the middle.

Arthur, panting worse than a dog, flung himself inside the house and promptly fell to his knees. His chest heaved and tears came to his eyes. He blinked them back as he pounded his fists against the floor, his angry yell echoed through the house.

"We'll find them." Nick promised out loud.

"Gear up robot, we aren't coming back until we do." Maxson got to his feet and headed towards the hall where a large cabinet was stocked full of ammunition and guns. He grabbed a combat knife and tucked it in his boot, then he filled the pouches on his bandolier, that was slung over his left shoulder and across his chest, with small energy cells. Nick helped himself to the revolver rounds and grabbed a shoulder bag from the cabinet. He left Maxson to 'gear up' as he went to the kitchen. Nick tucked as many bottles of water in to the bag as he could. Water and stimpaks. Maxson was great at getting the dangerous stuff, but lacked when it came to the healing stuff.

"Ready?" Nick asked when Maxson approached him in the living room.

"Let's go." Maxson's brow was set and the two of them marched out of the house to find their loved ones.

* * *

Tatum struggled against the ropes binding her wrists together, behind her back. Three Supermutants paced back and forth from one room to the next. She kept her eyes locked on the mutants and her ears trained towards her daughter. Luckily, Danae was still unconscious.

Blood gushed from one of the gore bags hanging from the ceiling as a mutant walked directly in to it. He made an indignant noise and swatted at the bag like it was a fly. _Not the brightest bunch…_ Tatum thought, as an idea came to her head. She continued to twist and turn her wrists in an attempt to free herself. She smirked, confident that her plan to stall the Supermutants would work.

* * *

Maxson held up his fist, signaling that Nick should 'hold'. Nick stopped in his tracks and waited while Arthur peered around the corner of a building. It was getting late, the sun was setting and it was inconveniently casting their shadows all over. Maxson crouched against the building, his back pressed against the wall, Nick crouched as well.

"Find 'em?" Nick whispered and Maxson nodded. He started giving the detective a bunch of hand signals, which he could only follow a few. "What?"

"God…" Maxson hissed, clearly irritated. "Three hostiles at the entrance and two on the roof."

"Why didn't you say so?" Nick pestered, also a little annoyed. He readied his gun and Maxson peeked around the corner again.

"I've got the roof. Can you manage all three on the ground?"

"Easy." Nick said, earning a sneer from Maxson.

"Move out!" Arthur whipped around the corner and immediately took aim at the Supermutant to his right. At the same time, Nick ran forward, shooting the grenade attached to one of his enemies and ducked behind a ruined wall. Two mutants exploded instantly and Nick aimed for the third one.

Maxson finished killing both hostiles on the roof and looked to see that Nick had also eliminated his targets.

"What took you so long?" Nick smiled confidently.

"Don't be an ass, Valentine." Maxson growled as he headed towards the door.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black." Nick mumbled as he followed. Arthur spun on his heel and grabbed Nick by the coat collar, pulling his face towards him.

"Are you having fun?"

"I always have fun with you, Arthur." Nick replied sarcastically. The vein at Maxson's temple throbbed angrily. "We're wasting time, let's go." Nick said nonchalantly as he reached for Maxson's wrist but never made contact as Arthur pulled it away quickly, avoiding Nick's metal hand.

* * *

"Squishy little human looks angry." The tallest Supermutant, the same one that repeatedly bumped in to the hanging gore bag, poked at Tatum's body. She wiggled away from his dirty fingers and tried to conceal her daughter's body with her own.

"Are you going to eat me?" She asked the mutant as calmly as she could.

"Humans are delicious!" He replied as if it was the most obvious thing.

"Then you're in for a surprise." She said with a chuckle. _Remain calm._ She instructed herself; she could barely stop her body from shaking in fear. Tatum and Arthur spent countless hours training for surviving in the wealth. He taught her advanced self-defense and marksmanship, they practiced making fires, and they even practiced hacking in to computer terminals. However, the one thing they couldn't practice was suppressing fear.

"Surprise? What surprise?" The mutant looked irritated and Tatum's heart beat loudly. She took a deep breath.

"I'm not very tasty." She said with an apologetic frown. "You won't like eating me, I'm all metal inside."

"Metal?!" He grumbled. "You're not metal!" He was getting angrier by the minute and Tatum glanced at her daughter; still asleep."

"It's true!" She said quickly. "I can prove it."

"You prove it." He roughly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her forward. She bit her lip to keep from screaming in panic. She was spun around and the mutant untied her hands. "Prove you're metal."

"I need a knife."

"No!" The mutant roared. "You are tricking me!"

"No, I'm not." She held out both hands and tried to calm him. "I have metal under my skin, but I can't show you unless I cut myself." She prayed that he would fall for her trick. The mutant stared at her for several moments before moving away from her. She watched closely as he bent over to pull a knife out of one of the corpses of her neighbors. Bile rose to her throat at the sight of her dead friend.

He came back over to her and handed her the knife. "If you are tricking me, human, I'll crush you!" He roared and Tatum nodded vigorously. Her eyes met with another of her neighbors that was tied up across the room. The woman stared at her in horror, silently begging Tatum to save her.

Tatum gave the woman a quick nod before removing her shirt. "Ready?" She asked the mutant in front of her.

"Prove!" He demanded and she obliged. She held her breath as she ran the blade across her left shoulder. A whimper escaped her lips as her skin split apart and blood poured from the wound. She set down the knife and used her shirt to dab at the blood.

"Look." She said breathlessly as she spread her skin with her fingers. The mutant leaned forward and inspected her shoulder. Under the skin was a metal plate that she had had surgically inserted after she had a bad fall and cracked her scapula.

"You are metal!" The mutant was dumbfounded. "But all metal men were destroyed!" He stood up and stepped away from her in utter confusion. Tatum quickly hid the knife under her butt when the mutant looked away from her. When he looked back she was putting her shirt back on. "We don't eat metal! Hurts teeth!" He complained, whining like a child.

"I'm sorry." She said with as much sympathy as she could. _Please don't just kill me._ She watched as the flustered mutant paced back and forth, his hands on his head.

"Metal is bad." He shook his head repeatedly. "Metal is not food." Tatum glanced at Danae who stirred slightly.

"Hmm hmmm hmmm." Tatum started to hum in an attempt to keep her daughter sleeping. The mutant stopped pacing and looked at her.

"What are you doing?" He questioned as he approached.

"You seemed upset," Tatum's eyes darted to Danae then back to the mutant. "I thought I would sing you a song. It'll make you feel better." Tatum's neighbor looked at her with wide eyes. She shot her a glance that meant: _I'm making this up as I go!_

"Song make Tree feel better?" He asked.

"Tree?" Tatum repeated. "Is that your name?" The mutant nodded his head in confirmation. "That's perfect!" She said with a smile, "I know a song that's all about a strong tree. Want to hear it?"

"Yes, strong Tree!" The mutant sat in front of her again and eagerly waited for her to sing. She took a deep breath and prayed that her song would occupy him long enough for her to figure out a way to escape.

* * *

Despite their less-than-perfect relationship, Nick and Arthur worked well together. Each acted as if they had completely planned and rehearsed their battles; they almost never aimed for the same enemy which allowed them to clear the area much more efficiently.

From the corner of his eye, Maxson saw a Supermutant rapidly approaching Nick, who was reloading his gun. "Hey!" He yelled and Nick looked up just in time to see the knife that Maxson pulled from his boot, and had expertly thrown, impale itself in to the mutant's wrist. It dropped the spiked club it was holding and clutched its wrist. The diversion gave Nick just enough time to snap the cylinder back in to place and unload several bullets in to the mutant's head.

Within moments they had cleared the room and moved on to the next. Neither one saying a word to the other as Nick handed Maxson his knife back.

* * *

Shouts and bullets cried out from the floor above Tatum. She tried to sing louder in an attempt to block out the noise but it was too late, Tree had heard it too.

"Puny humans come to rescue metal people!?" He roared with laughter and Danae woke with a start.

"Cover your eyes!" Tatum yelled to her daughter and Danae followed her mother's orders immediately. Tree turned his face towards Tatum, surprised by her sudden outburst. As fast as an angered Deathclaw, Tatum pulled the knife from under her and stabbed it through Tree's eye and up in to his brain. She let out a roar of her own as she pressed with all her strength.

Danae screamed, her eyes still covered, panic taking over. Tree's lifeless body collapsed on the floor and Tatum hugged her daughter. She shushed her and gently rocked her in her arms.

Nick and Arthur sprinted down the stairs, towards Danae's terrified scream. Arthur headed towards his family and Nick spotted captive woman on the other side of the room. He made his way towards her as Arthur wrapped his arms around both Tatum and Danae.

"Daddy!" The young girl sobbed as she wiggled out of Tatum's grasp and in to her father's arms.

"Danae!" Arthur breathed. His entire body felt numb as he held his daughter tightly, protectively. The adrenaline was being washed away by relief and exhaustion. Tatum sat back and caught her breath as she watched her daughter crying hysterically in her father's arms. Tears came to Tatum's eyes as guilt overtook her. Arthur glanced at Tatum, her head down and shoulders shaking as she cried. He looked at Nick who was slowly approaching.

"Hey there little lady." Nick said after getting an approving nod from Arthur. Danae raised her head and her sobs restarted, full power, as she reached her arms out to Nick. He carefully snatched her from Arthur's arms and walked her away from her parents, trying his best to soothe the child with calming words.

"Tatum." Maxson reached out to his wife and took her hand.

"We should have never done it!" She pulled her hand out of Arthur's and turned her back to him. "What were we thinking? Bringing a child in to _this_ world!" Her entire body shook with grief and Maxson held her still in his embrace. He kissed her cheek from behind and held her close even though she struggled to break free.

"Tatum, listen to me." His voice was soft but firm, demanding. "These things happen. It's not your fault." He knew she was feeling guilty about not being able to prevent the mutants from kidnapping them. "You did a great job. You singlehandedly protected your daughter." He noticed the knife hanging out of the dead mutant's eye. "We had Danae because we love each other and wanted to share that love with a child of our own." It wasn't often that Maxson spoke like this, but he knew it was what Tatum needed right now.

"She could have died."

"But she didn't because of _you_." He reminded her and kissed her cheek again. "Thank you."

Tatum looked at her husband, his eyes brimming with tears. She turned in one fluid motion and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him like she had never kissed him before.

"Ahem." Nick cleared his throat after a minute and the two of them pulled apart. Maxson scowled at him and grabbed his daughter from Nick's arms.

"Daddy," Danae sniffled. "I want to go home."

"OK baby, we'll go home." He promised and kissed her forehead before she rested it on his shoulder, her breath tickling his neck. Nick held a hand out and Tatum gratefully took it.

* * *

Several minutes passed as the five of them, Tatum, Arthur, Danae, Nick, and their neighbor, walked home. The only people talking were Danae and Arthur. She kept asking what happened and why the mutants took them away. He explained that the Supermutants were bad guys that he had to kill. He told her that they wanted to hurt her and that she was very lucky that she had such a clever mommy. He hated that he had to tell his little girl about the horrors of the commonwealth, but it was necessary. Arthur had been only four years older than Danae when he saw his first Deathclaw; evil doesn't care how old you are.

"Let's take a break." Maxson suggested as he set his daughter down. Nick took Danae's hand and led her towards the nearby stream. The two of them started washing their hands and clothes. The neighbor woman followed after them and Tatum sat on a tree stump, feeling completely exhausted.

"You look like hell." She informed her husband.

"We're moving." He said flatly.

"What?"

"We're moving to Diamond City. It's safer there."

"I'm not allowed in Diamond City." She informed him.

"I'll do whatever it takes. You'll get in that city."

"Danae doesn't want to move, all her friends are at Sanctuary Hills." Tatum argued.

"No, they're not." Maxson lowered his voice. "The Supermutants killed almost everyone." Tatum's eyes widened and she stared at him in horror. "We're moving."

"But—" She started to say but Maxson cut her off, his voice desperate.

"I can't go through that again." He was speaking in a voice barely above a whisper. "I've never been so afraid in my life."

"Not even when you fought Deathclaws?" Tatum tried to make a joke to ease the tension but it fell flat.

"That doesn't even compare." He dropped to a knee and took Tatum's hands in his. "If you and Danae had been killed… I couldn't…" He shook his head and dropped his gaze to the ground.

"Ok." Tatum whispered before clearing her throat. She spoke clearly. "We'll go to Diamond City." She stood and Maxson copied her. Tatum took several steps forward before stopping and looking over her shoulder at her husband. She gave him a wink and a big smile. "Besides, we'll be living closer to Nick!" She giggled mischievously and ran off towards the stream.

Maxson's jaw dropped as it felt like a block of ice fell in to the pit of his stomach. _Closer to Nick…_ _Sacrifices must be made for safety._ He told himself as he grit his teeth and joined his family.

* * *

"Daddy…" Danae's warm breath tickled Maxson's ear as she whispered to him. "It's time to get uuupp" Her voice was sing-songy as she gently pushed on his shoulder.

"Wake your mother." Arthur rolled over, his back to his daughter.

"She's already awake!" Danae pouted. "Come on, Daddy!" Arthur opened one eye and saw that Tatum wasn't in bed. He sighed as he sat up, Danae instantly crawling in to his lap.

"What time is it?" He asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Ten o'clock." She said happily as she snuggled against his chest.

"Ten?" Maxson looked at his daughter, his brow furrowed. "Really?" He hadn't slept in that late in a long time. Not since Danae was a baby and needed almost constant watching.

"Mmm Hmm." Danae nodded and wrapped her arms around her father's neck. Her forehead rubbing against his beard. "Momma said that we shouldn't wake you. She said that you were really tired."

"I guess I was." He said as he scooped his daughter up and got out of bed. He carried her through the house as she giggled wildly. "Where is your mom?"

"She's with Nick."

"Of course." Maxson sighed. Ever since moving to Diamond City, which had been easier than either one of them had anticipated, Tatum spent most of her time with the synth. It irritated Maxson to no end. "Did she go to work today?" Doc Sun had taken Tatum back once her name was cleared.

"I don't know." Danae looked up at her dad, his face was stern and his brows furrowed. Deep wrinkle lines were etched in to his face and she reached up to poke at them. "You're doing it again, Daddy." She giggled as he relaxed his face, a smile spreading across his lips. Tatum had been trying to break him of his "mean facial expressions" for years, and now she even had her daughter doing it.

"Did you eat breakfast?" He asked as he set her down on the floor. She shook her head and he kissed her forehead. "Ok." He took a deep breath and pulled open the fridge door. "Let's see." After staring at the contents inside, he pulled out several ingredients and set them on the counter.

Danae watched as her father whipped up breakfast. He didn't spill a drop of food on his white t-shirt or gray pajama bottoms. He chopped a carrot quickly and thinly with a knife, like he had been preparing food his entire life. Tatum was alright at cooking but she had nothing on Maxson.

"Smells good!" They both looked over to see Tatum walking through the door. "Daddy must be cooking." Tatum kissed Arthur on the lips as she approached.

"Someone has to feed our daughter." He playfully scolded and Danae giggled. Her personality was very similar to her mother's, happy and caring. However, she also inherited several of her father's traits. She had a poker face like no one else.

"Someone has to feed your wife." Tatum teased as she hugged Arthur from behind. Danae jumped to her feet and pushed her way in between her parents, stealing her mom's spot. "Hey!" Tatum pouted at her daughter and Danae squealed with delight. Arthur chuckled as he twisted around to put an arm across his daughter's shoulders. He glanced at Tatum who was trying to hide the smile on her face.

A warmth spread through Arthur as he cooked breakfast for the two women he loved the most. As long as they were together, he knew he wouldn't need anything else, and the only thing that could ruin his happiness would be if Nick came over for lunch again.


End file.
